By early fall, the price of onions in Moldova had sharply decreased

During the last week of August, yellow onion prices on the Moldovan market fell by 29%, on average, from 7 to 5 lei/kg ($0.28/kg). This is an expected situation development. Early last month, EastFruit analysts predicted that by September, the average wholesale price of onions in Moldova would drop to about the level usual for the first month of fall in 2019-2021- 4-5 lei/kg ($0.23-0.28/kg). Of course, in this context, the average level of wholesale onion prices in September last year – 8 lei/kg ($0.41/kg) – looks all the more unusual.

According to market traders, unprecedentedly high prices for onions in the last marketing year influenced the production plans of Moldovan vegetable growers for the current year. According to EastFruit, they expanded the areas for the crop-2023 of this product by about 10-20%. If the weather conditions were more favorable in spring, onion plantations could have expanded even more.

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However, even a relatively small increase in area affected the market conditions badly. According to the feedback from vegetable farmers, this year, onions were sown by a significant number of agricultural producers who had never specialized in growing this crop before. As a result, in late August – early September, the Moldovan market received significant batches of onions of poor quality.

This factor, on the one hand, puts pressure on the average wholesale price of onions inside Moldova. Currently, a significant share of medium and lower quality goods is already sold at the price of 4-4,5 lei/kg. On the other hand, the prevalence of low-quality onion offers on the Moldovan market undermines the prospects of onion exports to EU countries. Some Moldovan agro-farms sent small batches to Romania and Austria in August. However, Ukrainian farmers can now offer cheaper and no less high-quality onions to the European market.