To be fair, according to EastFruit monitoring, the October average wholesale price of potatoes in Moldova is 25% lower than in the same month last year. However, it is in the middle of the five-year price range – 3-8 lei/kg.
According to Petr Iliev, Chairman of the Moldovan Potato Growers Association, the current dismal situation with potato quality is a consequence of several long-standing problems in the sector. The first and main reason is the violation of crop rotations and the “accumulation effect” of diseases, particularly fusarium.
Thesecond reason is the massive import of potatoes affected by ring rot from Belarus in 2019-20. This product entered the country for food purposes. However, some part of it, it must be assumed, got into the seed stock of agricultural farms, and this has negative consequences years later.
The third reason is drought and stress of moisture-loving potatoes during the growing season. “On the way out” it looks like rust spots on the cut of tubers. The problem does not threaten people’s health, but the quality of such a product is, to put it mildly, upsetting.
