The Essence of the Claims
Adrian Burduja, chairman of the Pig Farmers’ Association, told Agroexpert once again this year that the industry—which employs about 6,000 people and generates 800–900 million lei in tax revenue to the state budget, received approximately 92 million lei in subsidies from it (presumably for last year—ed. LP).
At the same time, the most “pressing issue” remains the unpaid state compensation to the country’s two largest pig farms. Last spring, they were forced to cull a total of nearly 120,000 pigs—roughly one-third of the country’s commercial pig population—due to an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).
In financial terms, the losses, according to estimates by the management of the pig farming companies, exceeded 440 million lei. The leadership of the Pork Producers Association has calculated that state compensation to the two affected farms should amount to approximately 300 million lei.
According to another estimate presented at a meeting at MAIA, compensation for damages caused by last year’s ASF outbreak could amount to about 110 million lei.
One of the factors likely influencing Moldovan pig farmers’ assessment of the situation was the fact that in 2023, nearly 7,000 pigs were culled due to an ASF outbreak (at the same largest farm, it should be noted). And the state (at the initiative of the then-leadership of MAIA) paid compensation totaling nearly 64 million lei.
The Rationale Behind the Response
ANSA Deputy Director General Alexander Manchu stated that the agency did not reject compensation claims without justification—all decisions were made in accordance with current regulations.
Specifically, after the detection of ASF and the resolution of the “acute phase” of the problem, ANSA inspectors conducted an investigation (regarding the fact that “a shell hit the same crater again after a short interval”— LP note ). The results of the investigation revealed a major deviation from the norm—overcrowding and exceeding the permissible number of animals at one of the two (the largest) affected farms.
This is the most significant, but not the only, shortcoming identified, noted one member of the agency’s Dispute Resolution Council in a comment to Logos Press.
The pig farms disagreed with ANSA’s findings, attributing the violations to the agency’s own shortcomings (restrictive measures and problems with the accounting system).
As a result, the dispute became the subject of legal proceedings. For this reason, in response to an accusation by the head of the pig farmers’ association that ANSA was delaying the compensation payment process, an ANSA representative noted that he was not authorized to go into details at this stage, since “the legal proceedings are not yet complete, and we do not want to influence the outcome.”
For their part, the pig farmers believe that complaints about the quality of their operations have also arisen because there are insufficient funds in the state budget for ASF-related compensation.
Compensation Is Not the Only Issue
This assumption is indirectly confirmed by the fact that, at one time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry attempted to share the risks with insurance companies regarding potential outbreaks of dangerous diseases on livestock farms.
In response, insurers noted that both legislation and basic market logic advise them to refrain from assuming obligations beyond their ability to compensate for losses. Over the past few years, the total insured amount under contracts with livestock farmers across all insurance companies has not exceeded 15 million lei. In other words, it is an order of magnitude lower than the estimated damage caused by ASF on commercial farms in Moldova.
Nevertheless, as insurance industry operators note, a certain (albeit small) portion of the livestock on farms affected by ASF was insured. However, according to unconfirmed reports, insurance compensation has not yet been paid, again due to a dispute between the policyholder and ANSA.
Outlook
According to some operators in Moldova’s meat market, the restructuring of the pig farming industry is long overdue. Given the complex epizootic situation in the region—not only in the Republic of Moldova, but also in Romania, Hungary, and other European countries—a logical step could be to downsize pig farms and distribute them more evenly across the country.
In addition, a second logical step could be for meat processors and manufacturers of prepared meat products to establish their own raw material base.
Incidentally, some major players in this industry have already established their own livestock farms. They started by raising chickens, but pigs will obviously be next.
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