Anna Turcan-Oboroc, MP for Democrația Acasă, presenting the project on short chain supply of agri-food products, emphasized the importance of supporting the local economy.
“People from Telenesti want to buy products from Telenesti. For example, there are onion producers in five villages of Teleneşti district. And if onions are grown here – we can move to direct negotiations and purchases from Nucareni and Negureni, instead of buying onions from Mogilev Podolski, for example,” the deputy said.
Vasile Kostiuc, chairman of the faction, drew attention to the risks for farmers with uncontrolled imports.
“When I said 3-4 months ago that we have tens of thousands of tons lying in warehouses, we should have taken care of our market. You will simply ruin farmers if you fill the market with imported vegetables – and our producers will suffer again. People are throwing away onions because they don’t know what to do with them. We are talking about the minimum price they were hoping for – at least 3-4 lei. If you destroy a farmer or an entire industry, then you will buy at the prices that will be imposed on you by those who produce in the neighborhood,” the MP said.
The representative of the majority faction, chairman of the commission on economy, budget and finance Radu Marian asked not to belittle the abilities of the local onion producer:
“I would like to inform you that, according to statistics, we export twice as much onions as we import, and when we rely on this information, it is important not to undermine or underestimate the ability of our producers to be competitive on international markets.”
First step
Both the PAS (“On Short Supply Chains of Agri-food Products”) and Democrația Acasă (“On the Supply of Agri-food Products through Short Chains”) bills were passed by Parliament in their first reading.
Most likely, by the second reading, they will be merged, and the majority faction’s draft will become the basic one. It defines that in a short supply chain there is only one intermediary between the primary producer and the final consumer. Retail outlets will be obliged to use special logos indicating participation in the short supply chain. A National Registry of short supply chains will be established.
The authors of the project said that this is the first measure in a series of initiatives of the “Cumpar BUN de-acasa” campaign, which invites Moldovan citizens to choose local products: both during winter holidays and throughout the year.
