Some trading companies have started buying walnut kernels “from the market” this week, i.e. not from partner farmers, with whom sale and purchase contracts are concluded following direct negotiations with prices not being disclosed. The wholesale price announced by traders for “external suppliers” is 50-60 MDL/kg ($2.62-3.15/kg), depending on the quality of kernels and the volume of the lot, reports East-Fruit.
It is for the first time in a long while that prices for walnut kernels in Moldova are so low. Even in 2018, when the Moldovan walnut market faced an attempted redistribution and administrative blocking of the exports of many market operators, November prices were higher – an average of 70 MDL/kg ($4.09/kg).
Traders and walnut growers understand the reasons for this. On the one hand, local exporters hope that European wholesale buyers will offer them a price of at least 5.5-6 EUR/kg for varietal walnut kernels. However, there are very few such offers, the purchased volumes are small and may well be covered by contracts between exporters and a few traditional partners – walnut farmers. There is no great need for the purchase of nut kernels “from the market”.
The period of active buying of walnuts harvested in households from forest belts and alleys along the roads has been postponed for several weeks. Such uncertainty does not bode well and cannot last long (without the risk of freezing the domestic market). Therefore, presumably, some producers, intermediaries and small traders started trial purchases from a low price. There are very few offers to sell walnut kernels at such a price. However, one might say the marketing season in the walnut market has begun.
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