PSD's Dragnea: Support program for tomato production must be doubled and extended to all vegetables

Social Democratic Party (PSD, major at rule, ed.n.) leader and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea stated on Wednesday in the village of Colibasi in southern Giurgiu County that the support from the domestic tomato producers program should be doubled so that they can build heated greenhouses so that there are Romanian tomatoes on the market throughout the year, but also that the program be extended to all vegetables grown in protected facilities. "Let us encourage them to purchase heating units, let the Ministry of Agriculture give them money directly to acquire central heating, to give them money to buy double foil and to modify the superstructure from the greenhouse so that it can hold, let it be a larger subsidy for those who make heated greenhouses so that they can cover the other months as well," Dragnea said. He reiterated that the competition made to Romanian agri-food products by products brought by importers which do not have the same quality is disloyal. "On the other hand, the institutions that I have spoken about should carry out checks, should verify, whatever tomato, pepper, fruit comes in at Giurgiu [border point, ed.n.], they can carry out an analysis, I know there is a firm in Giurgiu that has a laboratory that in five minutes can tell you the exact composition of each vegetable or fruit. There was a law that 51 per cent of the commodity has to be Romanian. They are mocking it, let's talk realistically and effectively, we have no chance with that law that the Romanian producers take precedence because so many obstacles are thrown in their way because the interest is to sell the goods out and if you go to France or Germany and you eat a tomato from the store, it is not, however, like the Romanian tomato because no one in the world has the land that God gave here in Romania, but anyway, it has some kind of taste as compared to the tomatoes you eat in Bucharest. (...) This program was good with three thousand euro for tomatoes, the minister has to present a much more aggressive support program because we are not fighting with an army of children, we are fighting with heavy armies, Romania is flooded with frozen meat, it is flooded with fruits and vegetables brought from all over no one knows about how much poison or chemicals they contain for next to nothing. Until the Romanians come out with the tomatoes, there is one price on the market, when the Romanians come with their tomatoes, they [importers, ed.n.] coming in with one leu [Romanian currency, ed.n.], it means that this is a mockery. Besides being bad, there is also a lot of tax evasion and smuggling," said Liviu Dragnea. He added that hypermarkets are pursuing the quality of Romanian vegetable production, but he does not know who checks the quality of products from outside the country. Liviu Dragnea also said that the Romanian vegetable producers should be helped to cope with the competition, so that there are processing capacities in which a whole or several communes are associated, adding that "in 2020 we will have the first network of Romanian stores." On Wednesday, the PSD chairman, together with Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea paid a visit in Colibasi village to the beneficiaries of the support programs for tomato production and entered the first heated greenhouse as well as the first vegetable processing collective farm in the commune.AGERPRES(RO - Camelia Bigan, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)