Over the short (by market standards) period from July to August 2026, Moldova exported nearly 378.2 thousand tonnes of wheat. “This is the highest figure for these months of the year in the entire history of records,” notes Iurie Rija, an expert in agri-marketing.
Compared with the already high figure for exports during the same period last year (307,400 tonnes), this represents a 23 per cent increase. However, a comparison with the grain market trends during the bumper harvest year of 2021 is most telling. During the summer months of that year, around 360,400 tonnes of wheat were exported from the country. Exports at the start of the current marketing year are 5 per cent higher.
Moreover, according to Eurostat data, in July–August 2026, Moldova shipped 113.5 thousand tonnes of wheat to the EU – more than Ukraine and Serbia. As a result, it ranks second on the list of suppliers.
Price
The average export price of Moldovan wheat in July–August 2026 stood at 3.71 lei/kg. In other words, it was higher than in the 2024/25 and 2023/24 seasons – 3.53 lei/kg and 2.59 lei/kg respectively.
The picture of ‘diverging trends’ is telling. On the one hand, there was an increase in the physical volumes of wheat exports: 150.8 million tonnes in July and 227.3 thousand tonnes in August. On the other hand, there has been a fall in the average export price: from 3.76 lei/kg in July to 3.67 lei/kg in August.
The rise in the average price this season does not reflect higher margins for exporters but is due to higher logistics costs, which are passed on to the final price.
Export destinations
In a sense, the summer success of Moldovan wheat on the European market is a source of pride. However, there is a caveat. At the start of the 2026/27 marketing year, Romania rose to the top of the list of buyers of Moldovan wheat. Almost 134.12 thousand tonnes (35.5 per cent of total exports) were shipped to the neighbouring country at an average price of 3.59 lei/kg.
Italy, which held the leading position last season, has slipped to second place. 98,600 tonnes (26.1 per cent) of the crop were shipped to its market, but at a significantly higher price – an average of 3.72 lei per kg.
Israel rounds off the top three of Moldova’s largest trading partners for wheat exports this summer: nearly 56,690 tonnes, with an average purchase price of 4.01 lei/kg.
Logistics structure
Water transport remains, as before, the main route for wheat exports from Moldova. It accounted for around 287,640 tonnes (76.1% of the total volume).
Rail transport was the second most significant mode of transport – 48.21 thousand tonnes (12.7 per cent), whilst road transport came third, accounting for 42.31 thousand tonnes (11.2 per cent).
An important detail is the sharp drop in rail transport in August (a total of 2.87 thousand tonnes) compared with the figure for July (45.34 thousand tonnes). The reason for this was the downtime experienced by Moldovan rail wagons at the port of Reni, which began right at the start of the last month of summer. Shipowners are refusing to handle cargo transhipment via the port of Reni due to high military risks. As a result, the transport of Moldovan grain by rail has come to a near standstill.
Consequently, the logistics complex in Giurgiulești has become Moldova’s main export hub. In July and August, nearly 279,000 tonnes of Moldovan wheat (73.8 per cent of the export volume) were transported via this hub by ship, road and rail.
Around 11.2 per cent of exports (almost 42,300 tonnes) passed through the Etulia rail border crossing. Moreover, the monthly trend in traffic through this crossing mirrored almost exactly the general collapse in rail grain shipments from Moldova described above: 39,400 tonnes in July and 2,870 tonnes in August (a 92 per cent decrease). It is clear that the Giurgiulești transport hub absorbed the bulk of the freight flow that was redistributed in August.
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