OREANDA-NEWS. March 04, 2011. The respective decision was made by the Cabinet at its sitting to ensure the uninterrupted supply of bread and bakery goods to the population and to preserve stability of prices for their in the home market. According to the government’s decree, bread wheat is to be returned to the state reserve by September 1, 2011.

The biggest volumes were provided to baking enterprises of the Chisinau and Balti municipalities – 3,000 tones each. The region of Orghei will get 1,000 tones, Hincesti region – 500 tones, Edinet region – 400 tones, Drokia region – 300 tones, Criulesni – 200 tones, Briceni – 150 tones, Falesti – 120 tones. Vasilii Bumacov, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, said Moldova currently sees some shortage of bread wheat in the market. As of February 15, its stocks totaled 121,000 tones, with the necessary 130,000 tones.

About 2,500-3,000 tones of flour a month are imported, mostly from Ukraine. The country’s food security provision degree is 93% taking into consideration 45,000 tones of bread wheat from the state reserve. This volume of grain is enough to ensure food security for 1.5 months. However, given the fact that this wheat from the state reserve was not in the trade turnover, the home market sees the excess of the demand for wheat over its supply.

The allocation of 15,000 tones of wheat from the state reserve in late September 2010 solved the problem existing at that moment and enabled to keep prices for bread stable despite the 14% rise in prices for wheat in the previous 4 months. Thanks to the temporary suspension of wheat export in February, its possible deficit in the home market was prevented, however, this measure didn’t lead to reduction in prices for wheat.

At the same time, only for the last 30 days, the price of highest quality flour imported from Ukraine has growth from USD 315 to USD 390 for a tone. Under these circumstances, at the bread-baking enterprises’ request, the government decided to allocated bread wheat from the state reserve for them.