Experts recommend that Moldovan producers of fruits, berries orient themselves to new markets

Chisinau, 27 November /MOLDPRES/ - International experts have recommended that Moldovan producers of fruits and berries orient themselves to new markets and invest in quality and marketing. The solution was proposed, given that the world market is overloaded with low-quality berries and apples; the production of apples is on the rise, the demand is decreasing and importers of Moldovan apples have already started cultivating their own production.    

The subject was analyzed at a today’s national conference organized by the Farmers’ Federation of Moldova (FARM), under the aegis of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).   

Attending the event, a FAO representative, Andriy Yarmak, said that the world market of apples was stagnating, while the production grows. “The harvest from European this year reached the record figure of 3.4 million tons, - the equivalent of 40 annual harvests of fresh apples in Moldova. Neither in the long run, the market of fruits and apples sees any deficit. At the same time, the former and current importers – Russia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Ukraine – started actively cultivating their own production and are orienting themselves to exports,” the expert said. In these conditions, the producers from Moldova must focus on new sales markets, especially those from Asia and Africa, should invest in new technologies, varieties demanded on market, in quality and marketing, the expert noted.   

Andriy Yarmak also said that the situation of berries was not much better, even if the demand on external markets is increasing against apples.  

Also, FARM experts informed that, although the European is the biggest consumer of berries, nevertheless, the consumption is increasing most intensely on Asian markets and the main importers of barriers from Moldova continue to be Russia and Belarus. At the same time, we can notice a slight diversification of export markets. Starting from 2018, berries from Moldova also reached Romania, Baltic countries and were delivered to Dubai too.    

The areas cultivates with berries have been continuously increasing in the last years. About 100 hectares are planted on average annually; the overall area is of 3,000 hectares, thrice more than in 2012. Also on this period, the production of berries has grown more than 11-fold.