The Association of Canned Food Producers Speranta-Con, which includes 9 food processing enterprises, asks the government for urgent help.

 

At Monday’s news conference at Infotag, directors of canning plants said they need a preferential credit worth 500 million lei and demanded lowering of the VAT from 20% to 8%.

 

“These highly important and necessary measures of the Government will help overcoming consequences of the 2014 Russia’s embargo and will prevent the branch’s destruction”, said Speranta-Con Chairman Ion Sandic.

 

He cited the latest statistics of the canning industry’s activity in 2014, saying that in total, enterprises have processed 330 thousand tons of fruit and vegetables over the last year.

 

“If taking average price for one kilogram of raw material at 1 leu, then enterprises paid for the agricultural producers goods over 330 million lei, said Sandic.

 

Also, canners said they would like resources to be provided at 6% interest rate and not higher.

 

“We have addressed with the demand about crediting to the Agriculture Ministry, the Government and the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), but nobody gave us a concrete answer, except for sententious lectures about what a bank is and which is his statute”, said Sandic.

 

Enterprises from the branch need financing to start the 2015 season, in particular to buy seeds for sowing green peas and corn, as well as cucumbers and tomatoes.

 

Asked about the sum of compensations, received by enterprises from the government for the processed 2014 harvest, plants’ managers said they did not received not a leu, though they have paid off the agrarians, transporters and energy resources providers.

 

As for the problem with canned products export, plants’ directors drew journalists’ attention to the problem of subsidies in agriculture, where low indexes affect competitiveness of Moldovan products on the European Union markets.

 

“The problem of exporting to the EU is not in Moldovan products quality or prices, but in oversaturation of the European market. For European producers of fruit and vegetables, Russia is a tempting market, which allows exporting to it products in large volumes”, said Orhei-Vit Director General Boris Efimov.

 

According to him, for fixing on the EU markets, Moldovan canned food producers should invest more in marketing, to win a share of trading shelves.

 

“For this we will need decades with large marketing infusions”, said Boris Efimov, adding that the Company Orhei-Vit tries to promote its products to Asia and Africa.

 

The Orhei-Vit Director drew attention to the fact that many enterprises have warehouses filled with the finished products, produced at the expense of credit resources, which demands timely repayment and interest rates payment to banks.

 

Natur Bravo Director General Vadim Scorobogatco called the structure of production cost, saying that 50% of funds in one can of food accounts for the raw material, 20% - for the container and the lid, 15% - for energy resources and waters, while the rest accounts for salary.

 

“At subsidies of 16 euros per hectare in Moldova and 500 euros per hectare – in the European Union countries, the Moldovan products a priori can not be competitive on the EU markets”, said he.

 

As one of measures for supporting canning industry, heads of plants regard the VAT lowering from 20% to 8%.

 

“In conditions of inflation and the national leu currency depreciation, people have fewer and fewer money for buying food products. Decline in the VAT will serve as impetus for consumer activity, which will reduce the quantity of products in the enterprises’ warehouses”, said Ion Sandic.