Parliament adopted on Friday, 4 September, in second reading, the law establishing a provisional licensing regime for imports of cereal and oilseed crops. A total of 53 MPs voted in favour, all from the Party of Action and Solidarity faction; the opposition did not support the bill.
The regime will run until 31 October 2026, with no possibility of extension. The law does not apply yet: it enters into force on the date of publication in the Official Gazette. The adopted text is not yet public — the provisions below are those confirmed consistently by reports from the floor and by the Government’s opinion of 26 August; Promo-LEX confirms the bill number and the timetable of the two readings.
What is left of the original bill
Bill no. 290 belongs to MP Serghei Ivanov (Partidul Nostru), chair of the parliamentary committee for agriculture and the food industry, and provided for licensing until 31 December 2027, with the Government able to extend it. In the version adopted, the deadline fell to 31 October 2026 and the extension clause disappeared.
The second change concerns who decides: representatives of the agricultural associations — producers, processors, livestock breeders and exporters — have been removed from the commission that will examine licence applications. The commission will be made up of representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalisation, and the National Food Safety Agency.
Who will be able to apply for the licence
The import licence will be issued free of charge. Natural and legal persons engaged in raising animals, manufacturing oils and fats, milling products, or preparations for farm animal feed will be able to apply for it.
The restriction that changes the calculation: whoever receives the licence will not be allowed to sell on or export the imported goods. Grain brought in under a licence remains raw material for the holder’s own activity.
In practice, licensing closes the door to the trader and leaves the processor with an application to file: only the processor will be able to submit it, but the decision rests with the commission.
What this means in Ungheni district
The district sits in both camps, and the law draws the line between them by type of activity.
On the protected side are the growers: 16,889 hectares of cereals and 10,010 hectares of sunflower (2025), with yields above the national average — 33 quintals per hectare for cereals in 2024, against 28.4 nationally.
On the side of those who will be able to apply are the processors and the livestock farms — millers, oil and feed plants, animal breeders. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that, as of 1 January 2026, Ungheni district had 2,681 cattle (including 1,738 cows), 6,914 pigs and 18,161 sheep and goats.
One detail from the same data shows where demand for feed is growing: among pigs, the herd held by agricultural enterprises and peasant farms rose from 1,502 head in 2024 to 2,310 in 2025 and 3,274 at the start of 2026. The figure has to be read from the other end of the series as well: in 2023 the same segment held 7,300 head, and the district’s total pig herd fell that year from 11,751 to 5,524 in a single year. The growth of the past two years is a recovery after a collapse, not a leap beyond the earlier level — the commercial segment is still below half of what it was three years ago. It is, in any case, the side that buys grain rather than growing it in its own yard.
The bill’s author: “a completely castrated law”
Serghei Ivanov criticised the changes ahead of Friday’s plenary sitting:
In effect, I was told the whole law had been changed entirely, conceptually. In effect, it turned from a viable law, which provided the basis for being extended and used in the national interest, into a law that will be valid for just one month. I am very sorry that we went from an idea and a wish of the farmers to a completely castrated law, which was not even born and yet was killed from the outset. Serghei Ivanov, MP, author of the bill
The MP announced that he is not withdrawing the bill and that he will prepare separate amendments, including on the period of application, after public consultations.
The majority: a short deadline protects processors
PAS MP Radu Marian argued that shortening the deadline, backed by the Government as well, seeks a balance: until 31 October exporters have time to sell their sunflower, without the restrictions staying in place long to the detriment of processors in livestock farming and poultry.
Marian also publicly called for MPs with businesses in cereals or oilseeds to declare this when promoting bills that could benefit their companies, and named Serghei Ivanov and Sergiu Stefanco, both farmers. Reports from the sitting contain no reaction from the two to that statement; Ivanov’s words above were spoken to journalists, before Friday’s sitting. The response came from the president of Forța Fermierilor, Alexandr Slusari, who called the statement “an absurd claim” in remarks to NewsMaker, arguing that the two are carrying out the requests of the farmers who voted for them.
PAS MP Dorin Istratii, who presented the bill in second reading, recalled that on 21 August 2026 several organisations from the livestock sector and employers’ bodies filed a petition objecting to the bill, warning that more expensive raw material feeds through into higher prices for meat and sunflower. The organisations that signed the petition are not named in reports from the sitting.
Farmers say they will seek an extension
Forța Fermierilor argues that the deadline of 31 October is not enough: pressure from cheap imports out of Ukraine could last at least four months, because export difficulties are pushing Ukrainian farmers to sell at very low prices. The association says that, if the regional price situation does not change, it will seek an extension of licensing until at least 31 December 2026, and that it is ready to organise protests.
The organisation is also calling for the licensing commission’s meetings to be public and announced at least two days in advance — a demand tied directly to the exclusion of the associations from the commission.
How the law was voted
The Promo-LEX Association, which monitors sittings of Parliament, recorded a procedural inconsistency. Bill no. 290 had been approved on the agenda for examination in first reading, which took place on 3 September. The next day it appeared on the agenda for second reading, without the move to a new stage being reflected in an amendment to the agenda put to the vote of the plenary.
The examination of the bill in second reading raises questions as to compliance with the procedure for amending the agenda, given that the approved agenda provided for its examination only in first reading. Promo-LEX, Summary of the plenary sitting of 4 September 2026
Promo-LEX notes that, under article 46 paragraphs (1) and (3) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament, amending the agenda is put to the vote of the plenary. As of the publication of this article, Parliament had not publicly responded to the finding.
At the same sitting, representatives of four opposition factions criticised the accelerated pace of examination and the insufficient time for amendments. The same monitoring also notes the other side, however: all the bills had been examined by the parliamentary committees responsible before the day of the sitting, and their reports were available before the vote. Of the eight bills voted on 4 September, seven passed in first reading and only one — the licensing bill — in second reading.
The calendar
The law must be promulgated and published in the Official Gazette to enter into force. The regime’s deadline, 31 October, is fixed, however: it does not shift with the date of publication. The longer publication takes, the shorter the window in which licences can be requested and used, compared with the eight weeks left from the day of the vote.
From Ungheni district, no public position from millers or livestock farms — those who will be able to apply for the licence — has emerged so far. All the reactions to date come from national industry organisations: Forța Fermierilor on the growers’ side, and the livestock and employers’ organisations through the petition of 21 August.