The aim of the programme is to establish a national regulatory framework in these sectors that is harmonised with EU legislation, and to implement it in practice. In other words, the aim is to ensure that Moldovan enterprises producing dairy and meat products are fully compliant with the requirements of European legislative and regulatory acts.
“This is a strategic step towards meeting milestone 12.1, which is necessary for opening negotiations on Chapter 12 (‘Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy’) as part of the Republic of Moldova’s EU accession process,” states the MAIA’s press release on the matter.
As part of the preparation of the draft national programme, from 28 September to 2 October 2026, the Moldovan Ministry of Agriculture will host experts Vlatka Vrdoljak Goossens and Jellen Goossens. They will present the project ‘Moldova is Europe: Supporting EU Integration’, funded by the EU and Denmark. The experts will also share Croatia’s experience in the assessment, classification, monitoring and control of enterprises processing products of animal origin.
In comments to Logos Press, representatives of Moldova’s meat and dairy industry associations noted that the current attempt to draw up a national programme for the modernisation of these enterprises is by no means the first. However, unlike previous attempts, this one has a specific ‘deadline’. According to them, the draft must be submitted to the EU authorities in November this year.
Experts from the associations are surprised that the programme focuses on modernising the final stage of the production chain in these sectors – the enterprises that produce food products. Meanwhile, the fundamental principle of the EU’s food safety system is to ensure traceability ‘from farm to fork’. Under this approach, the starting point should be the control of feed production, followed by livestock farms and abattoirs (and/or raw material processing points), and finally processing plants. Unless, of course, it is assumed that Moldovan producers of food of animal origin will, in the short term, operate exclusively using European (or other raw materials meeting European standards).
The programme for modernising these sectors of the food industry should, logically, be based on an assessment of the existing infrastructure. In particular, this involves assessing the readiness of farms, abattoirs and processing plants to transition to EU standards. It is clearly easier to assess whether a few dozen (or even a few hundred) processing plants comply with these standards than to assess thousands (or even tens of thousands, if micro- and small-scale farms are included) of livestock farms.
Moreover, during the previous wave of EU enlargement, a transition period was provided for all candidate countries to bring their infrastructure (farms, abattoirs and processing plants) into line with European standards. This period usually lasted at least five to seven years.
Representatives of processors’ associations claim that they have certain existing best practices in the field of food industry modernisation, developed with the assistance of international development partners. They have already submitted (or are ready to submit) these to MAIA and ANSA, the bodies authorised to develop the aforementioned modernisation programme.
Industry representatives may have the opportunity to discuss this and other issues at a meeting scheduled for 1 October at the Ministry of Agriculture.
This story was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.The translation was also reviewed by the Logos Press editorial team.
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