As a compensation for potential costs, local industrial sugar consumers will be guaranteed direct access to the “WTO quota” for sugar imports on a preferential basis.
As previously wrote Logos Press, the government, at the suggestion of the Union of Sugar Producers UPZM, has drafted a bill providing for the limitation (one thousand tons, for a period of 200 calendar days) of sugar imports from Serbia to Moldova, within the framework of the free trade agreement between the CEFTA countries. Above this temporary quota, supplies of Serbian sugar will be subject to a standard (actually blocking) customs duty of 75%.
During a dialog with media representatives on October 7, the head of the Ministry of Economy, Doina Nistor, stated that the current Cabinet of Ministers will have time to make this decision (before its resignation and approval of the new government following the recent parliamentary elections).
Also, at one of the next meetings, the cabinet will adopt amendments to the regulation on the distribution of preferential quota (in the amount of 5.5 thousand tons for 2026, taxed at a customs rate of 10%) for the import of sugar to Moldova under the agreement within the World Trade Organization WTO. In the structure of this quota it is supposed to reserve the import of 3 thousand tons of sugar for industrial consumers (with the transfer of the right to carry out this supply to specialized trading enterprises). This part of the “WTO quota” will be selected according to the standard principle – “first come, first served”.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Economy, based on UPZM calculations, the annual capacity of the sugar market in Moldova is about 63-65 thousand tons. Sugar market operators estimate the country’s needs higher – 70-75 thousand tons.
This year two sugar companies, according to their own forecasts, will produce about 70 thousand tons of sugar (last year the actual local production of sugar was less than half of this volume). The factory (wholesale) sugar price for the new marketing season is projected to be in the range of 15-16 lei/kg.
The needs of industrial consumers of sugar in Moldova in this production resource for the last several years is about 15-30 thousand tons per year.
In 2024 and 2025, Moldova imported from Serbia in the free trade regime with CEFTAcountries approximately 15 thousand tons of sugar each. Serbian sugar is one of the most expensive in Europe, but in the duty-free regime its supplies to the Moldovan market were economically beneficial and expedient.
According to market operators, at the moment the retail prices for sugar in Moldova, about 0.92 EUR/kg, are the highest in the region (in Romania – 0.75 EUR/kg, in Ukraine – 0.56 EUR/kg).
More details – in Friday’s edition of the weekly Logos Press
