CHISINAUY, June 1. /TASS/. Moldova has failed to re-orient its agricultural exports to European Union markets and is interested in exports to the Eurasian Economic Union (of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan), the chairman of the Moldovan parliamentary commission for agriculture said on Monday.
"Moldova won’t be able to effectively export its products to countries of the European Union. For example, we have not exported a single kilogram of meat there, and I don’t believe we will manage to do this. Moldova badly needs a Eurasian sales market," Radu Mudreac said after talks with a delegation of Russia’s Rosselkhoznadzor Federal Service for Veterinary Safety Surveillance.
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He said agricultural producers faced a critical situation because of growing debts to creditors. "Some banks are already demanding that farmers return loans, while agrarians have no money to return, as they have so far failed to sell their products," he said.
Export rules for Moldova were tightened last year, after Chisinau signed an agreement to create a zone of free trade with the European Union. Mass protests of farmers losing the Russian market began across the republic. They demanded from the authorities to revise the agreement with the EU and compensate for the loss of the Russian market.
Moldova’s Gagauzia autonomy will be the first region to restart agricultural exports to Russia after restrictions imposed last year in the wake of Chisinau’s signing the agreement, Alexei Alexeyenko, assistant to the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, told reporters on Monday.
"Moldova has possibilities to resume exports of its products to Russia and expand them. We have very good impression of what we have seen in Gagauzia," he said.
"Chisinau insists that demands for compliance of Moldovan products with rules of the Eurasian Economic Union be excluded from bilateral documents," he said. "This is an unlawful demand, as EEU is a supra-national organization and we have to comply with its rules as countries of the European Union do," said Alexeyev, who visited the republic at the head of a Rosselkhoznadzor delegation.