Farmers to get help, but government wants to be 'responsible'
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said on Thursday that the government will provide assistance to farmers, but it must do so responsibly and not be held responsible for their failures.
Recean's comments come amid ongoing protests by farmers, who are demanding, among other things, a moratorium on debt repayment to creditors, with the cancellation of penalties from banks until October 31, 2024. They are also calling for the government to allocate over one billion lei from the National Fund for Agricultural Development to small, medium, and micro-sized farmers in the coming year.
Recean said that the government agreed with farmers in August to compile a list of those who need targeted assistance, but the government has not yet received the list. Romania has also offered 4,000 tons of diesel fuel to cereal producers.
The Farmer's Force Association, however, has disputed Recean's claim, saying that the government never requested a list of farmers who are struggling to pay their debts.
"Only three days ago, in an emergency mode, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry requested such a list from several associations. This morning, the Farmer's Force Association will transmit the list of farmers who are unable to pay their debts to several creditors, even if we do not understand the legal value and powers of the commission, created by the Ministry of Agriculture, which cannot act by derogation from some norms of civil legislation," the association said in a statement.
According to Recean, the commission established by the Ministry of Agriculture will begin working today. There have already been over 40 requests, and five producers have already registered to go through the commission, with the submission of all documents.
Regarding diesel fuel, the Farmer's Force Association said that "after our appeal to Mrs. Sandu in November 2022, it has not yet reached farmers and it is not known when this will happen."
Recean also said that the mechanism for VAT compensation has been modified and that some producers have benefited from compensation. Now, farmers are asking the government to prohibit creditors, banks, and suppliers of inputs, fertilisers, insecticides, and seeds from demanding debts and penalties from cereal producers.
"These are the money of economic agents, and the state, in order to intervene, must intervene. That is why I proposed a mechanism by which we determine this force majeure individually and with the force majeure certificate offered by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, you go and, according to the contract and the civil code, the method of debt recovery is changed. We cannot do this for everyone. It would be incorrect," the prime minister explained.
At the same time, Recean said that there are, nevertheless, a number of agricultural producers that the government must help.
"We cannot intervene with the citizens' money to compensate for the bad decisions of some economic agents. For example, they make investments of 2-3 million euros without calculating them very well, after which they risk bankruptcy. These decisions cannot be assumed by the government, nor can they be assumed by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Dear cereal producers, come each individually, we look over the file. Because if you are sitting with 3-4 thousand tons in the barn and do not want to sell them, waiting for better prices, I agree, this is the condition in which you can afford it," Recean said.
Recean also mentioned that per-hectare subsidies, as they are now in the EU, are not efficient and the EU will be abandoning them next year. Efficiency, that is, per kilogram, should be subsidised. And secondly, Recean said that Moldova no longer needs to subsidise the production of cereals, because the production of these is excessive and is exported as a raw material, which is very cheap.
Representatives of the Farmer's Force Association announced that the farmers' protest in the Great National Assembly Square will resume today, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
