Yuri Rizha
In the first ten months of 2025, Moldova imported 39.6 thousand tons of soybean meal, including 32.5 thousand tons from Ukraine. The volume of external purchases of this commodity has already exceeded last year’s level (38.9 thousand tons), but the import of meal this year has not yet stopped.
Earlier, Logos Press wrote that for the sake of loading the local industry, Ukraine has introduced a 10% export duty on rapeseed and soybeans since the beginning of September this year. This became an obstacle to the purchase of Ukrainian soybeans by Moldovan processors. In this regard, it is worth noting that over the last five years, more than 90% of imported soybeans came to Moldova precisely from Ukraine. The volume of soybean processing and export of soybean oil and meal from the Republic of Moldova has sharply decreased. At the same time, supplies of Ukrainian soybean meal to the Moldovan market have increased significantly.
As a result, the price of imported meal in Moldova decreased. “In January-September 2025, the price for this commodity averaged about 6.3 lei/kg, which is about 25% lower than the price in the same period last year,” notes Iurie Rija, an expert in agro-marketing. – Currently, locally produced soybean meal is sold on the domestic market at the price of 6.70-7.50 lei/kg. Moldovan processors reduce their margins to the limit of profitability in order to remain competitive”.
It should be noted that within the framework of strict requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Moldova regarding the production and turnover of transgenic products, Moldovan agricultural producers and processors are oriented to work only with classical (unmodified) soybean. Which is important in the context of the use of soybean meal and other protein products by the domestic feed/food industry. In general, it is not good when even the domestic market of such Moldovan products with high added value is narrowed and redistributed in favor of foreign products (and not the fact that they are similar in terms of “classics”).
“To protect the soybean processing sector in Moldova, protective measures symmetrical to those applied in Ukraine are necessary,” believes Iurie Rija. – The introduction of a 10% duty on imports of soybean and rapeseed meal will balance the market and provide domestic processors with the minimum conditions necessary for survival. The proceeds from the import duty can be used to implement two support measures for the Moldovan agro-industrial sector. The first is targeted additional payments to soybean producers, through which they could offer farmers a more favorable price for purchased soybeans. This, in turn, will be an incentive to expand the area and increase the domestic production of this crop, which is very useful in crop rotation. The second strategic direction is to support livestock breeding. In order to avoid the negative impact of import duty on the income of livestock breeders, the state can introduce a mechanism of partial compensation of the costs of livestock farms financed directly from the funds received from the import duty on soybean meal. Such an integrated approach, aimed at protecting processors, stimulating farmers and supporting the livestock sector, may allow stabilizing the value chain of soybean and its processed products in Moldova”.
