Moldovan cabinet rules to release 21,000 tons of wheat from state reserves, meant for domestic consumption

Chisinau, 14 April /MOLDPRES/ - The acting government has approved a draft on the release 20,787 tons of food wheat from the 2017 year harvest from state reserves, in order to refresh the stocks with the harvest from this year. The action is necessary, in order not to allow essential financial losses for the state’s budget, if the product’s preservation term expires, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

Acting Prime Minister Aureliu Ciocoi stressed that this quantity would be oriented, as priority, to native economic agents producers of bread products, from miller’s trade sector and animal husbandry field. ‘’I ask these economic agents to show increased interest in contracting the necessary quantities of wheat, made available on the domestic market. And if till 10 May 2021, an exhausting of the stock proposed from the state reserve is not recorded, the quantity left will be open for procurement for economic agents from the category of depositors. It is important that this wheat is oriented exclusively for the domestic consumption, it is absolutely necessary to back these priority sectors at present,’’ the acting PM said.      

Agriculture Minister Ion Perju gave assurances that the country was supplied with food and fodder wheat till the next harvest, expected as of 1 July this year. Despite a difficult agricultural year because of the drought, in 2020, a harvest of 570,000 tons of wheat was registered. At the same time, starting from 1 July 2020 till present, 120,000 tons of wheat was exported. ‘’The highest price for wheat was in last February, being determined by the regional price and from international exchanges, when one ton of wheat reached 280 euros. Presently, the price drops, as the agricultural year is expected to be better than the last year. The price decreased on the domestic market too – 1 kg of wheat costs already 4 lei. For the moment, 318,000 hectares of winter wheat are sowed in Moldova and the crops are in a good state, according to the current climatic situation,’’ Ion Perju said. He regretted the fact that this subject had been put in the political sphere.    

The agriculture minister said that an estimate quantity of 70,000 tons of wheat were left in Moldova, without those 21,000 tons, released from the state reserve and the Material Reserves Agency will have possibility to refresh its stock with quality wheat from this year. At the same time, Interior Minister Pavel Voicu said that another 31,000 tons of wheat remained available in the stocks of the Agency, which means that over 90,000 tons of wheat remains in the country in all. Voicu noted that, if decision-makers fail to refresh the quantity of 21,000 tons of wheat till 10 May 2021, there is a risk for the state to lose 900 lei per each ton of wheat, after it switches to another category of quality.   

In the context, Aureliu Ciocoi asked the concerned institutions to consider possibility to provide a more attractive price to economic agents from the priority category against the present price on the domestic market; thus, a common denominator was found between the financial interests of the Material Reserves Agency and the need to back the native producers in the sector.

The participants in the cabinet meeting approved the quantum for 2021 of the financial assistance provided to the beneficiaries of international protection in Moldova, which will be 1,307 lei. The quantum is 15 per cent from the average monthly salary for this year, 8,715 lei. Last year, this quantum was of 1,192 lei.  

photo: Government