OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2011. The respective decree was passed by the country’s government at its meeting. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said the wheat export ban introduced in February 2011 had achieved its goal, enabling to stabilize the situation in the grain market and to avoid rise in prices for bread.

He emphasized that the country has enough wheat till the new harvest. According to him, the difference between the available and the needed volume of food wheat currently totals only 8 thousand tones, which will be compensated by flour import from Ukraine. Vasilii Bumacov said specialists expect a good grain harvest this year, that is why the ban on wheat export needs to be removed and peasants should be given the opportunity to conclude export contracts.

Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat told the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor the situation on the crops market and in case of necessity, to interfere and apply market mechanisms to improve the situation. The wheat export ban was introduced by Moldova on February 2, 2011 since the volume of wheat exported by Moldova from 1st of August 2010 till January 31, 2011 exceeded thrice the volumes of grain sold abroad for the same period of the previous year and if no restricting measures were taken, the country could remain without bread in few months.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, as of 1st of April 2011, Moldova had 87,000 tones of food wheat available against 97,000 tones needed. Moldova imports 3-5 thousand tones of flour a month, mostly from Ukraine and exports to Romania 2-2.5 thousand tones. The International Monetary Fund insisted on annulment of the wheat export ban by Moldova and the republic undertook to do it as soon as possible and not to introduce new trade barriers under the Supplementary Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies, coordinated with the IMF.