Traders themselves claimed that the export of plums to the European market, especially to Romania, will be activated as soon as “the Europeans run out of stocks of commercial plums of their own production”. However, time is passing, and the operators of the fruit market in Moldova are getting nervous about when and how widely new opportunities will “open up” for them on the European market.
Until 2022, under the DCFTA agreement, Moldova had a quota for duty-free supplies of plums in the amount of 15 thousand tons per calendar year.
In 2022, the EU authorities increased preferential quotas for fruits from Moldova, and subsequently exempted a wide group of fruit group goods from duties altogether – as a support measure for the country, which is experiencing multilevel problems due to the war in Ukraine. All these enhanced support measures expired on July 24 of this year. As a result, the previous euro quotas came into effect. Including for the export of plums from Moldova – the above-mentioned 15 thousand tons. And this very quota Moldovan exporters managed to fully choose during the second half of summer and a small part of the fall.
This happened, again, thanks to the “happy coincidence” of several factors. The first is the significant losses of the 2025 plum crop in many important, from a market point of view, European plum-producing countries. Probably, for this reason, there was a demand for Moldovan plums of early varieties (in normal seasons – not very liquid and quite inexpensive) in Europe and its vicinity this summer.
The second reason that contributed to the intensive selection of Euroquota for plum export is, contrary to spring pessimistic forecasts, quite a good plum harvest in Moldova. According to autumn expert forecasts – about 80-90 thousand tons. That is, at the initial stage of the marketing season, Moldova had enough plums for everyone – both exporters and domestic consumers, including industrial consumers (producers of dried fruits, plum paste – the basis for juices, distillates – the basis for cuica palenka).
Moreover, some operators of the fruit market (those who have large capacities of post-harvest infrastructure) even anticipated the situation of fierce competition between orchardists (producers of plums) and winegrowers (who will also gather a high harvest) for “a place in refrigerated warehouses”, which is rare in the last few bad harvest years. However, as the harvesting campaign expands, and especially in the context of favorable Euro quotas, the operators of the Moldovan fruit market have a question – what will they have to do with all this happiness (rich harvest of plums and grapes)?
Now about “new opportunities”. In summer, long before the mass harvesting of plums and grapes of fall varieties, the authorities of Moldova and the European Union informed about the forthcoming adjustments to the DCFTA agreement. As a result of negotiations between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Commission on the actualization of this agreement, the parties agreed to increase duty-free quotas for exports from Moldova to the European Union. Including plums – up to 61 thousand tons, apples – up to 50 thousand tons, table grapes – up to 40 thousand tons, cherries and cherries – up to 4.5 thousand tons.
The increase in the quota for Moldovan plum exports to the European Union is encouraging. Since, according to the Association Moldova Fruct, the actual export of plums from Moldova to the European market in the previous four-year period fluctuated in the range from 27 thousand tons to 56 thousand tons. Including 48 thousand tons in 2024 and 56 thousand tons in 2023.
The problem is that the extended quotas, as promised by the parties that agreed them, will open tentatively from the second half of October. Meanwhile, market operators together with the expert community note that in the last few years, the period of the most active export supplies of Moldovan plums falls precisely on the interval between the second half of September and the first half of October. Therefore, from the point of view of popularization of the European integration process among Moldovan gardeners and winegrowers, it would make sense for the Moldovan authorities and the EU to hurry up with the ratification of the updated version of DCFTA. However, everyone realizes that this is unlikely to happen before the end of September.
Hence, the question arises, hotly discussed in social networks: is there life (no, not on Mars) after the elections in Moldova? I mean, will the DCFTA ratification take place in October, if the results of the electoral September in Moldova will be a parliament without a majority and the task to form a new coalition government of technocrats? What could be the options for the evolution of the Moldovan fruit market in cases if the new Euroquotas open or not?
Firstly, the export of Moldovan plums will continue in any case. Even with the payment of the standard Euro duty of 12%. The demand for plums from Moldova in the EU countries in the fall-winter will most likely remain at a high level, and prices will probably increase. If at the same time new quotas are opened, market operators will earn more, if, by an unlucky coincidence, this does not happen – they will be satisfied with little.
Secondly, Moldovan plum can be exported not only to the European Union, but also to the CIS countries. In the previous two seasons, the European direction prevailed in terms of volumes and prices, while the traditional eastern direction degraded. But in the light of new circumstances, the vectors of Moldovan plum supplies may change.
Thirdly, if there are temporary commercial or logistic difficulties with export in the fall, Moldovan growers can concentrate on the domestic market. In the sense that the owners-lessors of post-harvest infrastructure will still be able to earn on the competition “for refrigerators” between fruit and grape producers. The option of long-term storage for all subjects of fruit business in the current season, of course, is associated with growing risks (rise in the price of energy resources and, consequently, increase in production and commercial costs – at least). However, it is acceptable.
Finally, it is not excluded that the demand for Moldovan plum on the part of its processors will remain throughout the fall. In particular, the process of plum harvesting may involve plum freezing enterprises (which experts consider not as a form of processing, but as a way of long-term storage of products). Therefore, “freezers” need plums of premium quality, as for the “fresh market”. Naturally, even in a situation of temporarily oversupply (high harvest and inactive export) of plums, the price for this raw material for freezing cannot be low. Therefore, it is unlikely that many thousands of tons of plums will be harvested for freezing under any circumstances.
That is, the main buyers of Moldovan industrial plums will still be producers of dried fruits, paste and distillates. They will dare to purchase this raw material in excess of the previously measured production plans only if there will be demand for the mentioned products from external buyers and if the price for industrial plums will decrease by the end of the season.
