By the end of this winter, the assortment of berries in Chisinau’s chain retailers is still limited. Even the familiar “winter strawberries” produced in Greece are not available in all supermarkets, and their prices in February 2026 are 15-20% higher than in January-February last year.
As Aneta Ganenko, chairwoman of the Association of Berry Producers Pomușoarele Moldovei, noted in a commentary for Logos Press, this is partly due to the delayed ripening of strawberries even in greenhouses in Greece and other southern European countries due to the cold winter, which affects the supply and price of goods.
Besides this new circumstance, other factors of “price support” – food inflation and decrease in purchasing power, growth of production costs, inflation and inflationary expectations, financial risks – do not lose their relevance.
In this regard, perhaps, wholesale traders and retailers, “will continue to optimize costs, including logistics, which will somewhat expand opportunities for Moldovan berry producers in the coming season”, believes Aneta Ganenco.
As the head of the industry association notes, according to her observations in the off-season, at least one third of medium and large berry producers this year plan to expand strawberry plantations. In some cases – by dozens of hectares (for the berry sector in Moldova it is significant).
It is likely that the downward trend of areas in the strawberry segment, observed in the last few years, will be replaced by an upward trend. Positive changes are also likely to occur in the blackberry and raspberry growing sector.
