Agrarians Demand to See Prime Minister and Threaten to Protest

The Farmers’ Power Association, the National Federation of Farmers of Moldova and the Moldova Fruct Association are once again trying to get an appointment with Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita. In a joint letter, they demand a meeting with the head of the Cabinet of Ministers before September 12, otherwise the farmers reserve the right to arrange protests, deschide.md reports. “Due to the growing tension among agricultural producers, our organizations are strongly requesting a meeting with Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance no later than September 12. During the meeting we propose to discuss our general demands, unanimously adopted at the September 5 meeting, which should be fixed by the decision of the Emergency Commission and which would allow:

1. deferring payments to creditors without charging penalties for affected farmers (except for lease payments for agricultural land);
2. granting fiscal privileges to the affected agricultural producers, in particular granting the right to use VAT from the account to pay taxes and contributions;
3. approaching external partners with a view to identifying financial resources in order to pay compensations to affected farmers in the amount of at least 3000 lei per affected hectare, either in the form of cash remuneration or diesel fuel/fertilizers, as well as compensations to gardeners in the amount of at least 2 lei per kg of apples sold to processing companies or for export to alternative markets,” the letter says.