According to expert estimates, only a few thousand tonnes of table grapes from the 2022 harvest will remain in the fruit storage facilities of Moldova next year. The participants of viticulture associations say they will be sold mainly on the domestic market to lovers of “niche” grapes of local seed varieties at a high price.
Moldovan traders exported about 18 000 tonnes of grapes from the 2021 harvest in January-March this year, EastFruit reports. Winter and spring exports of Moldovan grapes did not fall below 6 000-7 000 tonnes in the last five or six years.
The current situation is explained, firstly, by the relatively small volume of marketable grapes from the current year’s harvest stored for export in the second half of autumn and winter (according to expert estimates, about 20 000-30 000 tonnes). The second reason is intensive exports. More than 20 000 tonnes were exported from the country in September-October, and the high rate of exports was preserved in November. According to major traders, they are “sending trucks with the last batches of grapes to the European Union” this week.
Despite the rather good demand for “Moldova” grapes at the end of the marketing season, their prices did not increase, contrary to the expectations of farmers. According to the EastFruit monitoring, the average wholesale price for quality grapes of this variety has stabilized at the level of 12 MDL/kg ($0.61/kg) in the last week of November. This is the usual price in MDL for this period of the year, but it is one of the lowest over the past few years in dollar terms. Apparently, fearing power outages and other surprises, farmers and traders decided to quickly sell grapes, even at a low price.
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