Earlier, Logos Press reported that among the rather large Moldovan exporters to the USA are producers of canned fruit and vegetables, as well as apple concentrate. Some of them, in particular Orhei-Vit S.R.L., were caught by the announcements about the evolution of the tariff policy at the moment when a large shipment – 16 containers of goods, both in consumer and wholesale packaging – was sailing to the USA.
According to Boris Efimov, the head of the company, the U.S. market accounts for an average of about 10% of the company’s export structure. In the USA Orhei-Vit supplies finished products both under its own trademark and for realization under the trademark of customers. And sales of finished products are mostly linear, direct contacts with counterparties, rather than trading through an impersonal intermediary trader. Such connections are built up over years, their acquisition or loss is not only a matter of money, but also of reputation. As the cited source notes, in a certain sense, the “mitigating circumstance” in this context is not point, but rather the general problems of foreign suppliers of goods in their interaction with American partners-buyers.
Another important commodity position in the assortment of Moldovan fruit products supplies to the US market is apple concentrate. According to the Speranța Con Association, Moldova produces about 30-50 thousand tons of this semi-finished product annually, in the best seasons – up to 60 thousand tons. No less than 90% of the concentrate is exported, and in some years the U.S. share in Moldovan concentrate exports reached 50%. This is a lot. For comparison, external supplies of concentrate from such a large “apple power” as Ukraine usually do not exceed 100 thousand tons.
Two factors may serve as a “mitigating circumstance” for exporters of apple concentrate. The first one is that concentrate is, in fact, almost a stock exchange commodity, depersonalized. The American market for this product is large, but far from being the only one. And even China (the world’s largest producer of apple concentrate) will be able to find a way through some intermediary country to sell this product even in the United States. Moreover, Moldova will have no problems with this. The second factor is that the stocks of Moldovan apple concentrate of the 2024 harvest have already been almost completely realized. And what will be the tariffs and prices for apple concentrate of the future harvest – time will show.
