Agrostar trade union: Without Government's quick intervention, we'll see massive crash in businesses, unemployment

 The chairman of the Agrostar Federation, Stefan Nicolae, declared on Wednesday, after a meeting with the Senate chairman, Florin Citu, that without the Government's quick intervention there is a risk of a "massive" drop in business and activities of small producers, an effect that is so impactful for the agricultural producer and the food industry "which nobody will be able to control.""If the Government does not intervene quickly and promptly within a month, we will no longer have products from small producers, we will have a massive shutdown of businesses and activities, we will have unemployment, it will be such a large effect against the agricultural producer and the food industry which nobody will be able to control anymore. It is a problem linked with the production part, prices and the cost impact of energy, but there is also a problem of buying power," Nicolae specified.He added that the measure proposed by Florin Citu regarding decreasing social security contributions (CAS) by 5% is "very good," because thus there will be a reduction on the work force pressure, with a positive impact on buying power.The union leader also specified that he presented the chairman of the Senate the real situation which small agricultural producers are facing in the context of the energy crisis, requesting urgent measures for resolving the problems."It is an intense debate on capping food items, the huge impact of the hikes in prices of energy, fuels, fertilizers, on organizing small agricultural producers, on the raw material prices, the input prices, so all this package of problems I discussed with the chairman of the Senate, I presented the real situation, the current situation in farming, animal husbandry, the large crops. I pointed out that increasing prices for fuel, gas and energy will lead to the disappearance of many farmers, producers, prices will go wild and unfortunately buying power has gone down because of the increase in inflation and we asked for urgent measures," Nicolae said.In context, he pleaded for the agricultural producer's capitalizing and support."I want the capitalization of the agricultural producer, I want them to be supported through programs - some were announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and they are very good - by supporting the small producer in the medium term through regional investments, through intense inspections (...). It is a problem package and we cannot fix one and abandon the other," Nicolae pointed out.