OREANDA-NEWS. July 07, 2014. In the common statement of USP its is noted that unfolded in the last days informational campaign in the mass media against manufacturers of the beet sugar is aimed at liberalization of access of cane sugar producers of Moldova.

USP believes that the customer provocative campaign is one of canning companies, which for years suing because of non-fulfillment of contractual obligations to pay for the delivered sugar, wanting to increase their profits at the expense of radical reduction in price of sugar at the domestic market by the liberalization of the import of cane sugar. It is noted that this company, like any other, can import sugar from the external market, under quota provided to Moldova by WTO (6.5 thousand tons, but not more than 550 tons at one time) and additional licenses allocated to the Ministry of economy in case of deficit of sugar (not more than 10% of the total volume licenses at a time).

At the same time, according to USP, most industrial consumers of Moldova are not ready to pay a large sum in advance and are interested in stable supplies of sugar in the course of the year, at the best price and with the deferred payment, provided to them by the Moldovan sugar producers. The USP draws attention to the fact that in recent years more than half of the produced sugar in Moldova is exported to the EU and CIS, and most of the Moldovan sugar is sold at the domestic market accounts for the household consumers. All the Moldovan food industry consumes not more than a quarter of the domestic sugar. "The manufacturer within one year sells only 1% of the annual volume of its production in Moldova - about 1 thousand tons from 100-130 thousand tons of the whole.

To satisfy their insatiable appetite", this company is ready to sacrifice the whole industry of the country with a turnover of over 1.5 billion lei a year"- the statement of USP says. The Union of sugar producers explain that all disputes related to the activities of the sugar market in Moldova is decided by the Council "Sugar beet, sugar and processed products" under the Ministry of agriculture, which at its last meeting in late June confirmed that the import and processing of raw cane sugar in Moldova will create the conditions for the replacement of beet sugar in the domestic market and for the re-export.

This is a factor of high risk for the partner countries that have opened their markets for the duty-free export of sugar. "Liberalization of import of cane sugar in Moldova will entail the abolition of free access of Moldovan sugar export markets of the EU and the Customs Union, and the inevitable result will be closing at least 4 of 5 Moldovan sugar factories and the elimination of the domestic sugar beet", -the statement of USP says.