As Sergey Alba, an expert of IM “Expert Agroteh” SRL, noted in a conversation with LP correspondent, in a significant number of specialized potato farms the potato yield was about 70-80 tons/ha. That is, the commodity resource for the current marketing year of only large agricultural enterprises is many tens (if not a hundred) thousand tons of potatoes.
The dynamics of agricultural area in the potato sector of Moldova has been negative for many years. According to official data, in the previous five years, the area under potatoes decreased from 24 to 19 thousand hectares. But even if we assume that potato plantations have decreased to about 15 thousand hectares this year, of which only one third is in professional farms, local potato production in Moldova this year will still exceed 200 thousand tons. Of this amount, at least two-thirds will be commercial potatoes.
At the moment, the maximum wholesale purchase price of farmer potatoes averages about 4.5-5.5 lei/kg (last September the price was one and a half times higher). In neighboring Ukraine, traders offer even less for potatoes to farmers, in terms of RM currency – about 3.1-3.2 lei/kg. However, in the short term, supplies of even cheaper Ukrainian potatoes to the Moldovan wholesale market are unlikely due to expensive logistics.
Moldovan farmers put significant volumes of potatoes in storage in the hope of higher prices during the cold season.
