The season of early raspberries started in Moldova this week. The offer is small, most of raspberries are of the Novost Kuzmina and Rubin varieties grown in small farms in the central and northern regions. The quality is average: berries are of a good color, sweet enough, but rather small. Keeping quality and transportability of raspberries of these varieties is low, and the sales period is short – 3-4 days maximum. The demand price for the first batches of berries in the wholesale markets of Chisinau is 60-65 MDL/kg ($3.13-3.39/kg).
Growers say raspberry prices on the capital market are somewhat underestimated. However, the prices for raspberries for export to Poland announced by several traders caused the greatest dissatisfaction – 45 MDL/kg ($2.34/kg).
Many participants in the fruit and berry market in Moldova are aware of the low forecasted raspberry harvest in Serbia, Romania, and Poland in 2022, and of the expected problems with the supply of Ukrainian raspberries to the EU. It is reported in the specialized groups of Moldovan fruit growers that raspberries for freezing are currently being bought on the Serbian market at 75 MDL/kg. There are also reports about the starting price of raspberries in Poland at the level of 8-9 EUR/kg. With all this in mind, Moldovan berry farmers were hoping for a much more generous price offer for raspberries from local representatives of Polish trading and processing companies. Moreover, they indicated their interest in Moldovan berries a month and a half ago.
It is still unclear how the market dynamics will develop in the current situation. In 7-10 days, numerous raspberry producers from the northern regions will enter the market: Donduseni, Brichen, Edinet. However, the raspberry harvest is low this year. Accordingly, the offer will be small, and the active sales period will be shorter than last year. This circumstance will to some extent mitigate the transport and logistics issues, appealing to which the exporters set the starting prices much lower than the expected level. That is, upward balancing of prices is not excluded.
Moreover, Moldovan canning factories and enterprises for freezing fruits and berries announced their intention to purchase about 1 000 tonnes of raspberries on the domestic market a month ago.
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