Moldovan parliament speaker tells farmers state came up with response it can afford at present

Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu today said that the farmers’ demands were known to the authorities and that the government had intervened with support measures within the limits of the state’s financial capabilities.

“These are the demands that farmers have constantly been promoting. We are aware of them. The government has come up with the response that the state can afford at the moment,” Igor Grosu said in the context of the protest organized by farmers on outside the government building on May 27.

The speaker noted that the cabinet had allocated 110 million lei to support farmers and emphasized that hundreds of companies had already applied for access to these funds.

“The 110 million lei has been allocated. From what I saw in the information presented by the minister, 600 companies have already applied for these funds. So, they should be put to use and understand that there are other sectors we also need to cover,” Igor Grosu said.

Representatives of the Farmers’ Force Association on May 27 had discussions  with Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Ludmila Catlabuga and Finance Minister Andrian Gavrilita on support measures for the sector. The authorities announced that farmers can currently benefit from compensation for diesel excise duties, VAT refunds under simplified conditions, low-interest loans and a new support mechanism for the purchase of fertilizers and plant protection products.

At the same time, Ludmila Catlabuga said that the farmers’ protest represented a democratic exercise and assured that dialogue with farmers would continue.

“They have every right to protest and they have my full support in this context, considering that I will continue to focus on dialogue at the table, in order to identify solutions to all the demands they have,” Ludmila Catlabuga said.

A group of farmers on May 27 protested outside the government building, dissatisfied with the situation in the agricultural sector and the fiscal policies applied to farmers.