Local greenhouse strawberries will become available on the Moldovan market later, with lower starting prices

The weather in Moldova has been very unstable over the past two weeks: a sharp warming has been replaced by cooling. In the next day, there will be a big difference between day and night air temperatures, and there may be moisture on the soil. For this reason, the already delayed start of the sales season of local strawberries grown in greenhouses will be delayed by about a week more – by the end of the first decade of May.

Earlier, EastFruit reported that only a few producers of greenhouse strawberries from the southern regions of Moldova will have time to harvest the first batches of early berries by the pre-Easter peak of sales of expensive food products (Orthodox Easter in 2022 falls on April 24). In previous years with mild winters and early springs, sales of local greenhouse strawberries could start in mid-April.

Further delayed start of sales of local berries weakens the potential position of their producers. From the beginning of February to the beginning of April, prices for imported (Greek and Turkish) strawberries in Moldovan retail decreased on average from 180-200 MDL/kg to 60-90 MDL/kg ($3.2-4.9/kg). During this period, strawberries became available not only in supermarket chains in Chisinau, but also in boutique retail and even in some markets. The quality, or at least, the appearance of strawberries, has not yet deteriorated, as it sometimes happens a few weeks before the start of mass sales of the first Moldovan strawberries.

There is another circumstance that should not be discounted. Players of the Ukrainian berry market were not usually major suppliers of early greenhouse berries to Moldova. However, due to the expected reduction in demand in the domestic market of the neighboring belligerent country, and the still unclear prospects for the export of Ukrainian strawberries to the EU, a part of them may be exported to Moldova. Given the small size of the Moldovan market and its low paying capacity, even a modest import of Ukrainian berries may well decrease the prices for greenhouse strawberries. In other words, you should not count on high starting prices for local greenhouse strawberries.