Last month, Moldova was simultaneously a major net exporter to key traditional markets – Turkey and Europe – “outbound”, and “inbound” – a notable importer of raw materials from distant Argentina. This combination directly indicates Moldova’s stable positioning as a transit and processing link in the regional supply chain of oilseeds and vegetable oils.
“It is fundamentally important to fix at once the structural division of the April sunflower market into two segments with different economic logic, – comments on the market layout agro-marketing expert Iurie Rija. – The first segment: raw seeds, the traditional mass raw material, accounted for 96% of the physical volume and 93% of the value of the total turnover. The second segment: purified seeds, which represent a higher stage of processing, took a modest 4% of physical volume. However, due to a much higher unit price, their share in value terms reached 7%. It is this discrepancy between weight and value shares that is one of the key signals of the Moldovan raw materials market in April: the added value in Moldovan sunflower exports is real and measurable”.
|
Sunflower seed turnover |
Weight, tons | Value, lei | Average price, lei/t | Structure by weight, % |
Structure by value, % |
| Raw sunflower seeds |
70 361 |
847 596 267 | 12 046 | 96% |
93% |
| Sunflower seeds husked |
3 107 |
61 608 006 | 19 832 | 4% |
7% |
| Total turnover of sunflower seeds |
73 467 |
909 204 273 | 100% |
100% |
Each ton of husked sunflower yielded 7.8 thousand lei more to the trade turnover than a ton of ordinary raw material.
Exports exceeded imports by several times
The ratio of April trade flows on the sunflower market in Moldova: exports amounted to 60,0 thousand tons, worth 751,3 million lei, imports – 13,5 thousand tons, worth 157,9 million lei. Moldova exported 4.5 times more than it imported – this is a confident net exporter position, characteristic for a country with a developed agricultural sector and limited domestic processing.
“It is indicative that imported raw materials turned out to be cheaper than exported ones: the average price of imported seeds amounted to 11,729 lei/t versus 12,121 lei/t for exported sunflower. The difference of 3.3% can be explained by the differences in quality characteristics, insurance and transportation conditions, as well as by the peculiarities of long-term contracts. More important is the principle itself: the country sells more expensive than it buys,” emphasizes Iurie Rizha.
In terms of assortment, sunflower exports are clearly divided into two categories: 94.9% (56.9 thousand tons) – crude seeds, 5.1% (3.1 thousand tons) – husked. Last month, husked sunflower seeds are one hundred percent export product. Whereas imported sunflower was represented exclusively by unhulled seeds – raw material for further processing.
Geography of supplies
The geographical picture of sunflower seed exports in April 2026 was characterized by exceptional concentration. Of the ten recipient countries, only one – Turkey – absorbed 86% of the physical volume (87% of the export commodity flow value).
In absolute values, this is 48.9 thousand tons worth 596.9 million lei. The average price of shipments to Turkey amounted to 12,195 lei per ton – this is slightly higher than the average for exports (12,122 lei/t), which testifies to the stable quality of the Turkish flow. To understand the scale: every six out of seven tons of seeds shipped in April went exactly to Turkey.
The second place is taken by Romania – 5.7 thousand tons worth 65.3 million lei (10% – weight, 9% – value). In this case, the price is noticeably lower: 11,474 lei/t – 6% lower than in Turkey and 4.5% lower than the average for the whole export.
In third place is Bulgaria – 1.8 thousand tons at the price of 10,929 lei/t (3% of the total volume). Bulgaria consistently holds the position of price outsider in Moldovan sunflower exports at the end of the season – this is typical for the Balkan market.
The remaining seven countries together took less than 2% of the total volume. However, they are the ones presenting the most interesting price results. For example, the Czech Republic, with a minimum purchase volume (only 44 tons), paid 32,440 lei per ton – almost 2.7 times higher than the overall export average.
In April 2026, sunflower seeds were exported by 42 Moldovan companies. The main share of the export commodity flow came from the two largest operators – Rusagro-Prim SRL and Orom-Imexpo SRL, which together accounted for 57% of the physical and 59% of the value of all exports.
Export structure by weight
Sunflower imports to Moldova
The breakdown of sunflower imports to Moldova last month is very simple. Of the three sending countries Argentina provided 99,5% of physical volume and 99,5% of value (13,4 thousand tons, 157,0 million lei, average price 11 722 lei/t). Belarus and Ukraine supplied a combined total of only 66 tons, a figure that statistically does not change the overall picture.
Import structure by weight
