Czech Republic to invest 1.5 million euros in improving food safety in Moldova

Chisinau, 23 Jan. /MOLDPRES/- Moldova will benefit from support in the phytosanitary field, through a new project worth about 1.5 million euros, financed by the Czech Republic. Today a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAIA), the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSA), the Central Phytosanitary Laboratory and the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture of the Czech Republic (ÚKZÚZ).

"The year started with good things and new collaborations. This step supported by the Czech Government is a significant one in order to succeed in strengthening our phytosanitary control capacities", Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bolea said.

The project will bring benefits in terms of improving control and testing capacity in agriculture, having a positive impact on food safety and the agricultural sector in general. The main goal of the project consists in the effective application of preventive measures, which will lead to the minimization or remedy of the negative impact of phytosanitary problems, including reducing the risks of the spread of harmful organisms in Moldova.

"The direct beneficiaries of the project will primarily be the economic operators in the agricultural field of Moldova, who will have at their disposal both the control authority with an improved capacity to detect and evaluate the impact of harmful organisms, as well as laboratories with a strengthened analytical capacity, which will perform accurate and truthful analyzes by fast, highly sensitive, absolutely validated diagnostic methods. Beneficiaries are the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, as well as those from the countries importing Moldovan agricultural products, who will consume harmless agricultural products of high quality. Indirectly, the entire country's economy will benefit, because in better phytosanitary conditions, agricultural products will become more competitive, both on the national and foreign markets", the Ministry of Agriculture said.