Growers of fresh fruits and vegetables, such as grapes, apples, walnuts etc., are no longer required to request documents of origin from local authorities. They can sell export products based on a purchase receipt coming with a declaration issued on honor that confirms that goods are originated from the Republic of Moldova. Thus, by signing the purchase receipt, growers guarantee fruits and vegetables listed in this document are produced locally and exporters can erase one document from the list of documents required for exportation of goods.
The new procedure facilitating the export of Moldovan products is effectives as of November 2013, when the Ministry of Finances amended the Order Nr 130 of the Ministry of Finance providing the fulfillment of the acquisition act when purchasing agricultural goods from individuals.
Down to recent times, in order to ensure taxation of individual sellers and control over the origin of agricultural products and exporters of fresh fruits and vegetables, the Custom Service requested a document issued by town-halls. This document was to attest that fruits and vegetables were grown on certain plots of the locality. However, this document was not required by any regulation or law that is why some local public authorities refused to issue it.
These barriers to export have been identified and addressed in the study "Purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables from individuals for export to EU markets" conducted by the European Business Association - EBA Moldova. This study was conducted in consultation with public and private sectors and supported by USAID Business Regulatory, Investment and Trade Environment (BRITE) Program and contains the mapping of purchases procedures from individuals, international best practices and recommendations for the regulatory framework.
"Exporters will benefit from the elimination of documents of origin issued by town-halls. The outcome is extremely important - saving of the most valuable resources: time, money and people. In this way the clearing procedure at export will become more efficient and much quicker. The European Business Association seeks to encourage local production and facilitate its export to foreign markets," said Mariana Rufa, Executive Director of EBA Moldova.
Dumitru Vicol, director of Monicol company says that export procedure is very complicated, especially when it comes to bulk purchasing from individuals. "To export one truck of 20 tons of walnuts, it is necessary to obtain more than 650 certificates from town-halls, and we export tens of trucks every day. We also dry fruits, such as plums, apricots, cherries that are purchased from small fruit growers. There are cases when small growers have to run about the town-hall for several days to get this certificate only for one bucket of cherries. Meanwhile, fruits get spoiled and cannot be purchased. Many of small growers are very disappointed and say that "they will rather throw away their products than lose time waiting at the door for just one certificate", declared Mr. Vicol.
Since the confirmation of origin is made based on the purchase receipt; this will ease the process of obtaining the certificate of origin from customs and therefore will reduce the waiting time for exporting goods, from 2-3 days to one hour. This is particularly significant for exports to European Union, where each hour counts.
For more details please contact Mariana Rufa , executive director of EBA Moldova via mob. 07859999.