OREANDA-NEWS. August 25, 2014. During the round table discussion on the development of organic agriculture, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of Moldova said producing organic food provides a chance for most farmers of Moldova and Moldova’s authorities are committed to find effective solutions to ensure the sustainable development of this area.

He pointed out the importance of developing organic agriculture in Moldova and said its share would increase considerably thanks to the growing demand for organic fruit and vegetables. According to him, the potential of the domestic organic food market is much less than that of the EU, where there are 500 million consumers of whom mere half is provided with eco-friendly foods. Transition to the environmentally –friendly production is a labour-intensive and expensive process and eco-friendly foods are more expensive than those grown with help of traditional methods, he said.

That is why the Ministry thinks it necessary to subsidize this branch and is ready to consider mechanisms to support the eco-friendly agriculture. It should be noted that currently only 11% of Moldova’s agricultural exports are eco-friendly. The bulk of this output is exported to the EU and Switzerland. Participants of the discussion mentioned that the organic agriculture development was included in the 2014-2020 National Agricultural and Rural Development Strategy of Moldova and the 2014-2020 National Environmental Protection Strategy. At present, there are several documents regulating this area, but in the next 4 years, the laws and regulations are to be brought into compliance with the EU requirements.

This year, the regulation on the use of the national brand “Ecologic Agriculture – the Republic of Moldova” is to be finalized and approved, the 2015-2017 Consumer Awareness Raising Program is to be developed, the www.green.md platform is to be created, etc. The roundtable discussion was concluded with the resolution on establishing a working group made of experts of the agriculture and environment ministries, market participants and NGO representatives to expedite the drafting of the legislative initiatives aimed at developing the ecologic agriculture of Moldova.