According to an expert in the Moldovan berry business, director of Anastasia Trading&Service SRL Dmitry Dodica, berry farmers will have to build production and commercial plans this year, taking into account the very likely closure of Russian food market to Moldovan suppliers at least in the first half of the year. Moreover, even if the issue of delivering goods to customers is somehow resolved, both sides will have to look for payment options, perhaps more than once. The loss, otherwise it does not look like it yet, of the Russian market will be especially painful for the exporters of open field strawberries. They account for virtually the entire volume of external supplies, which are done in a short period – the end of June and the first half of July, 3-4 weeks maximum.
According to the heads of canning enterprises, the processing of strawberries in 2022 will be even more complicated than last year. Besides the quality issue, there is the difficulty in providing glass and plastic packaging. Freezing strawberries in Moldova is extremely poorly developed.
The problem of exporting raspberries is less serious so far, the expert says. Due to the expected reduction in the supply of Ukrainian raspberries to Poland, the demand for Moldovan raspberries (for freezing) will probably increase in Poland and, possibly, Romania and Serbia this year. Also, the demand for Moldovan blackberries can appear on the Polish market, and demand for currants – on the Romanian market.
According to expert estimates, over the past few years, the gross production of berries in Moldova has fluctuated in the range of 9 000-11 000 tonnes, among them about 7 000-8 000 tonnes of strawberries and 1 500-2 000 tonnes of raspberries. The country’s berry-growing sector is still highly dependent on weather conditions at key stages of the production cycle, especially during the harvest period. The quality is often unstable, the volumes of biological harvest and marketable products can vary greatly. On top of all, the main share of berry plantations is concentrated in small farms. There are currently few “berry clusters” with an integrated system: farmer cooperatives, harvesting companies with sorting/storage/packaging centers and export traders with transport logistics and stable foreign buyers (for example, strawberries – in the village of Kunicha, raspberries – in the village of Pokrovka in the north of Moldova).
In the previous three years, Moldova exported about 2 000-3 000 tonnes of strawberries, 1 000-1 500 tonnes of raspberries, several hundred tonnes of blackberries and currants. Almost 100% of strawberry exports were oriented to the Russian market, only last year several tens of tonnes of berries were exported to Romania. All Moldovan export strawberries go to the “fresh market”. Raspberry supplies are more diversified: the Russian market is still important, however, the Polish market buying industrial berries for freezing has become more important in the structure of Moldovan exports since 2020.
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