Strawberry season ends in Moldova with lower prices than last year

The specialists of the Pomușoarele Moldovei Berry Producers Association believe that the peak sales of strawberries will end in Moldova by the end of next week. They were short this year, within five to six weeks – from the last week of May to the first week of July. Even in the dry last year, the active marketing period of strawberries was longer. At the same time, wholesale prices for local strawberries at the end of the 2021 season are likely to be about 5-10% lower than last year’s level. In fact, from the beginning to the end of June, wholesale strawberries became cheaper by 4-7 MDL/kg weekly. By the end of last week, the level of wholesale prices for this berry reached the ”bottom” 15-20 MDL/kg ($ 0.83-1.11/kg). In summer 2020, wholesale prices for strawberries did not fall below 22-27 MDL/kg ($ 1.27-1.56/kg).

Read also:  In Moldova, the raspberry season began with low prices

The moment of the maximum supply of the highest quality strawberries fell on last weekend. From the very beginning of this week, the supply has sharply decreased (in part, because Monday is a day off for most of the fruit and vegetable markets in Chisinau and other large cities). On working Tuesday, there are still noticeably fewer sellers of strawberries than a few days earlier, their quality is also lower and all of them are slightly overripe. Wholesale and retail prices are several MDL higher than last weekend.

The Pomușoarele Moldovei Association notes that prices for strawberries always rise approximately from mid-June (there is a very small amount of expensive remontant strawberries, which is considered a niche product, from July to autumn on the Moldovan market). The period of high prices at the end of the season for classic strawberries usually lasts two to three weeks. But this summer, high prices for strawberries of the last harvest are unlikely to last longer than a week or ten days.