HARBOVAT, Moldova (AP) – Farmer Sergiu Calmac watches as row upon row of juicy red apples once destined for Russia ripen, fall to the ground and start to rot. Two weeks before Russia banned most food from the West, it placed a similar embargo on produce closer to home in Moldova, a small Eastern European country seeking deeper ties with the European Union.
Farmers here in one of the poorest corners of Europe are already feeling the pain, with some deciding not to harvest some of their fruit and vegetables at all this season. Calmac’s predicament is one that other farmers across Europe and beyond can expect to some degree after Russia expanded the circle of countries targeted by its food embargoes.
“A weaker person than me would lose his mind, seeing how his work and investment are being lost,” said Calmac, a 60-year-old who has spent the past 26 years as a farmer. “I have never had a situation like this.”
In late July Russia banned foods from Moldova and Ukraine – both former Soviet republics that the Kremlin wants to keep in its sphere of influence – after they moved to deepen their political and economic ties with the EU. A ban on Polish fruits and vegetables soon followed as Warsaw called for sanctions against Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. Last week Moscow took things further, banning most food imports from the West in retaliation for sanctions imposed as tensions mount over Ukraine.
The consequences of this geopolitical tit-for-tat are particularly painful in Moldova because it is already one of Europe’s poorest countries, a place where the average monthly salary is only $300 (225 euros) and where 30 percent of the GDP comes from remittances sent home by the 600,000 Moldovans – from a nation of 4 million – working abroad.