The XIth National Conference of Nut Growers of Moldova will be held in Chisinau on February 27.According to Oleg Tirsine, Chairman of theAssociation of Nut Growers of Moldova, James Olson, Director of Olson Trading Company (USA) and Murat Badem, representative of Nisao-Nut Vision (Portugal) will be the headliners of the conference. Both experts have solid experience in implementation of projects on planting and modernization of nut nurseries and plantations of nut crops in America and Europe. Preliminarily, James Olson will visit walnut plantations in our country, and then, during the conference, he will give practical recommendations to Moldovan nut growers.
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The main topics to be discussed at the conference by its organizers are:
- Modern agro-technologies in walnut orchards – winter pruning, young tree establishment and yield/quality optimization.
- Nutritional management of walnut plantations – proper planning of fertilizer application processes based on soil and plant leaf analyses.
- Phytosanitary protection strategies – a set of pest and disease control measures to improve the health and productivity of nut orchards.
- Product processing and quality management – best practices to increase the presence of nuts from RM on the world market.
- Marketing in the nut business – how can Moldovan nut growers improve their position on the European market?
Last year, the main topic of the conference of nut growers was the prospects of walnut export in the context of increasing demand for walnuts in the European Union. Then, for the first time, quite a large number of European trading companies responded to the invitation to participate in the forum of Moldovan nut growers. Their representatives willingly communicated with Moldovan nut farmers at the conference, emphasizing the requirements to the quality of products, operating in the European retail. In general, in terms of sales, the year 2024 was not bad for Moldovan nut growers. During most of the marketing year, the wholesale price for walnut kernel did not fall below 100 lei/kg (in the past five years, this product was more expensive only in some periods in 2022). The wholesale price for walnuts in shell averaged 30 lei/kg last year and was about 5 lei/kg lower than in 2023. The decrease in demand and, consequently, in prices for walnuts in shell in fall 2024 is explained by the less than ideal quality of this product due to very difficult weather conditions in spring-summer last year. Therefore, traders preferred to sell processed products (peeled and sorted kernels by quality categories) and not to take risks with exports of shell nuts, especially those coming not from farm orchards but from alleys along roads and forest belts. From this point of view, the issue of mitigating the impact of unfavorable weather conditions on the quantity and quality of production is an existential one.
The Conference “Sustainable Nut Growing: Foreign Experience and Prospects of RM in the Context of Climate Transformation” will be held at MAIB PARK .The conference is organized by the Association of Nut Growers of RM in partnership with OPTIM and PROGRESSprojects . The media partner of the conference is the weekly Logos Press.
