Peci talks about price hikes

The FOL movement on Wednesday has continued with a series of FOL Open debates, where the next guest was Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development Minister Faton Peci, reports Online Economy.

Peci said that this ministry has been operating for eight years without politics and strategy and with 40m euros in debts. He has promised that the budget for next year will increase for 11m euros.

The Ministry of Agriculture for 8 years has been operating without policy and strategy, where no laws and jobs are implemented within the ministry. There has also been a lot of debt with 40m euros. There have also been arrests over numerous abuses. Within our jobs we are working on advancing forests”. “21m euros to the end will be distributed and without debt for the first time. In the coming year, the budget will increase from the current 60m to 71m euros”, the minister said.

As for price hikes, Minister Peci said this has all resulted from global changes and the effect of pandemic.

The price-making of products is the result of global change and the effect of pandemic. The effect of the vaccine and the release of the measures cannot follow the need for consumption, and the inevitable is that we can afford to lose prices and inflation rates, and the amount of import has affected growth in inflation”.

He also stressed that during this year it will be for the farmers subsidies to be 53m euros.

We're going to make a new statement on the subsidies category, and this year the support for farmers is only from subsidies is 53m euros”. “We have a precise working plan. Especially the Law on Forests and Their Management has been carried to municipalities, and by expert estimates it does not reflect positively and we have a degradation of their cut”. The minister also spoke of the Food Safety Bill, stressing that the main goal is to increase control and safety of citizens.

“The Food Security Bill besides its security also counts on imports from abroad and our aim is to increase controls, and a host of things for citizens to feel secure. He was asked if they would take action further on farm support criteria, including the inability to be part of IPA funds as a result that millions have been misused for 10 years. “Advanced information technology is very important for farmers, and among the basic criteria is the very support of farmers”. Because of the way subsidies have been distributed for 10 years and there have been misuse of funds we have failed to meet IPA criteria, all because of the abuses that have occurred”. He has stressed that there are 14 inspectors under house arrest in terms of misuse of funds and subsidies.