Angered by the Finance Ministry's failure to compensate them for the apples delivered last year to the processing factories, orchard growers announce they will stage protests outside the Ministry's building next week. Alexandru Slusari, the president of UniAgroProtect, told IPN the amount due to the growers is approximately 45 million lei.
Alexandru Slusari says that a number of politicians promised that negotiations would be held with the World Bank to find the money and, now when the Bank offered funds, the Ministry has failed to transfer money to the growers. “We discussed this both in the spring and in the summer. The minister of agriculture promised that the budget would be adjusted but that hasn't happened so far. The orchard growers have no other choice but to take to the streets”, said Alexandru Slusari.
Slusari added that the money due to be offered in compensation has devalued in the meantime and will not be enough to cover all the costs. But the growers still hope to get at least some compensation.
