Prices for cherries keep decreasing in Moldova

Over the past weekend, sellers in the wholesale and retail markets of Chisinau offered small wholesale cherries of average quality at 5-7 MDL/kg ($0.26-0.36/kg). Retail prices for the best cherries (optimal ripeness, no defects, +26 mm caliber) were not higher than 20-25 MDL/kg ($1.04-1.30/kg). At the same time, the average price for high-quality cherries for export decreased from an average of 25 to 23 MDL/kg ($1.20/kg) last week.

EastFruit analysts earlier suggested that by the 20^th June, the prices for cherries in Moldova would reach the “seasonal bottom”. The abundant supply of early cherries is likely to start declining in the coming days. In many orchards, early cherries have already ripened, and farmers offer people to come to the farms “and collect fruits for themselves for free – as much as they need.”

At the same time, according to the operators of the fruit market of Moldova, cherries of late, mainly export varieties – “Cordia”, “Regina”, “Skina”, etc., have not yet ripened in many horticultural enterprises, even in the southern zone of the country. In some intensive orchards in the south of Moldova, harvesting will begin only at the end of this week. However, the harvesting campaign there will start under relatively good weather conditions, and no rain is forecasted. Product quality is generally good.

The only problem is that only a few farms have systems for hydro-cooling of fruits (some farmers try to improvise simple pre-cooling units ). In addition, almost all farms have only simple mechanical fruit sorting lines.

However, the farms, striving to ensure the high quality of export grade cherries, hope for an increase in prices for late varieties of cherries. The price range of 35-40 MDL/kg ($1.82-2.08/kg) for the best cherries is a comfortable level for them. Given the relatively high prices for average-quality cherries in Romania, they consider the sale of premium Moldovan cherries to the Romanian market to be quite real.