Moldova's government does not have the necessary financial resources to fulfill all the demands of farmers, but some requests of agricultural producers are already being implemented, Prime Minister Dorin Recean said.
"The government understands the difficulties in the agricultural sector and is seeking solutions, including with European partners, to be together with the farmers. I discussed this on the square with representatives of the Power of Farmers association," the prime minister said on Facebook*.
He said the association is demanding too much from the government now.
"What the association is now demanding from the government will cost the country's budget 700 million lei ($39 million), and the government does not have such resources now," Recean said.
He said the government helps farmers with specific measures, for example subsidies, taking into account their requests.
The protesters demand that the government suspend or limit grain imports from Ukraine, provide compensation for Moldovan grain producers - about 3,000 lei per hectare ($170), and also ask to pay off last year's subsidy arrears and refund VAT for fuel.
In 2022, Moldovan farmers also held protests, took tractors to highways to draw attention to their problems: drought, rising fuel prices, higher prices for fertilizers and pesticides, problems with crop export routes.
*Facebook and its parent company Meta is outlawed as an extremist organization in Russia.