OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2009. As it was stated by the Vice-Premier, the Minister of Economy Valerie Lazar during the meeting devoted to the establishment of the new system of the animal products imports, it must protect the consumers’ interests, so that people were not forced to pay double price for these products. As the press service of the Ministry of Economy has informed, the meeting was attended by over 50 representatives of producers, processors and meat importers.

They have discussed abolition of the government's decision, providing establishment of quotas on imports of meat and development of the new mechanism of the animal products import, acceptable to all interested parties. The Vice-Premier, the Minister of Economy Valerie Lazar noted that the new mechanism should ensure the real cost, high quality of the products and payment of all tax and customs fees. The necessity to change the mechanism of meat and meat products imports was proved by the positive results obtained after lifting of the government’s regulations on the import of fish and fish products.

It was noted that only within the first week after lifting of the government’s regulations in this field, the prices for fish and fish products has fallen by about 30% -50%. However, the participants of the meeting had expressed contradictory views as regards abolition of quotas on meat and meat products import.

At the same time, all parties agreed that the domestic market can be protected through other mechanisms, such as customs tariffs and subsidizing domestic producers. As it was noted, although about 350 million leis of annual subsidies to agriculture are presupposed, the meat producers have not yet received any money. "With abolition of quotas on imports it is necessary to ensure payments of subsidies to producers for the each kilogram of the meat sold. Otherwise, the local meat producers will disappear that would deprive of the working places hundreds of people in the rural areas, "- said the representative of Association of the Meat Producers of Moldova. In their turn, some importers strongly stand for liberalization of the market and changes in the existing legislation regulating import of the animal products.

At the end of the meeting, Valerie Lazar said that during the discussions a number of problems, which cause excessively high market prices for meat and meat products, have been identified. In this context, it was decided that in the short time all procedures of import and production of meat and meat products will be reviewed. At the same time, it is planned to develop a set of rules that will attract long-term investments to the local market. The new system of import of meat will be developed till October 27, after which the meeting in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry will be held.