Romanian Sheep Breeders, Vet Authorities To Start Negotiations Monday

Hundreds of sheep and goat breeders from several counties in Romania protested in front of ANSVSA’s building in Bucharest earlier Thursday, demanding the annulment of Order 111/2008 setting hygienic norms for food produced by shepherds.

 

Protesters, who brought banners with the name of the county they represent, had a clash with police.

 

They threatened to block border cross points and organize protests countrywide, displeased with the budget assigned to agriculture.

 

Order 111/2008 became effective on February 1 and obligates producers to register as private individuals at the Trade Registry, which entails the payment of certain taxes whose costs they cannot afford.

 

“We pay for laboratory taxes, the analysis bulletin, all vaccines, and we can’t cover even the costs, let alone make profit, if we have to pay other taxes. This order bans small producers from selling their products in markets. The Food Safety Authority is defending the interests of a group which brings imported food products. The order aims to eliminate these traditional products and we risk becoming entirely dependent on imported products,” head of the Union of Sheep and Goat Breeders in Romania, Marcel Andrei, said in a press conference.

 

Unionists filed a request at the Bucharest Court of Appeals to suspend this order and block the measures which they say destroy Romanian producers.

 

“The purpose of this order is to take the raw material and give it to the large processors, in order to take local producers off the market,” Andrei said.