The price for cherries is falling rapidly in Moldova

Cherries in Moldova have fallen in price by about 20-25% over the past week. Thus, wholesale prices for cherries with a caliber of less than 26 mm decreased to 18-25 MDL/kg ($1.01-1.41/kg) by the end of the week. In retail, in fruit and vegetable markets, the most frequent price for cherries did not exceed 30-35 MDL/kg ($ 1.69-1.97/kg). At the same time, there are no large cherries of uniform ripeness on sale yet.

Earlier EastFruit reported that the ripening of mid- and late-ripening cherry varieties is slow everywhere due to the large difference between night and day air temperatures. The period of peak harvesting and the arrival of products on the market is shifted by another week, that is, to the end of the second decade of June. At the same time, the potential 2021 harvest of cherries will be about 20% lower than last year. Cracking of unripe fruits is also observed due to heavy rainfall.

Taking this into account, it can be assumed that as more medium and low-quality cherries become available on the domestic market this week, their prices will continue to decline. In June 2019 when there were similar weather conditions, wholesale prices for large cherries fluctuated within 20-25 MDL/kg ($ 1.12-1.40/kg) and within 14-19 MDL/kg ($ 0.78- 1.06/kg) for small ones. In the same period of 2020, prices for both were 2-3 MDL/kg higher.

At the same time, managers of leading horticultural enterprises consider 35-40 MDL/kg ($ 1.96-2.25/kg) to be a minimum “acceptable wholesale price for large cherries of selected quality for export”. They also admit that it will not be possible to sell many cherries at this price at the start of the season – “the demand from European buyers is not yet high, the volumes of supplies and prices are not negotiated yet.” The current price level in the domestic market of the country is considered by large farmers to be low, but not critically low – “it still brings profit”.