Fruit was the driving force behind the rise in food prices, up plus 12.7% from the average price last month, plus 33.7% at the beginning of the year and plus 33.4% last May.
The associations of fruit growers consider the May rise in prices of fruits to be natural for a number of reasons. In May this year, the basis of the “fruit basket” of Moldovan consumers was last year’s local apples and imported citrus/exotic fruits, both commodity items being expensive.
Moldovan apples were exported quite actively in January-May, and at the highest price for this marketing period in the five-year period. Accordingly, this factor pushed up the prices for apples on the domestic consumer market of Moldova. At the same time, apple is traditionally the cheapest Moldovan fruit regardless of market seasonality. The pricing process for the whole assortment line of the fruit segment is based on the price level for apple, as on the bottom.
According to Moldova Fruct representatives, May of this year was the last month of active export of apple of harvest-2024, the stocks of this product have dried up. It is not excluded that in June supermarkets will need to import last year’s apple. Combined with expensive imported and local stone fruits of the new harvest, it is virtually guaranteed another price increase.
