As a result, the opposing forces of supply and demand have led to a rather sharp decline in wholesale purchase prices throughout August. Market operators believe that this negative price trend is likely to continue until mid-September.
As agromarketing expert Andrei Zbanka noted to Logos Press, in the last ten days of August, wholesale prices for dessert plums (for the domestic and international “fresh market”) fluctuated within a wide range of 6–9 lei/kg—depending on variety, quality, batch size, “transport distance,” and other factors.
Traders and exporters were purchasing plums at prices close to the upper limit of this range. Moreover, these purchases are being made primarily to stock fruit storage facilities rather than for immediate export. Foreign demand is currently very limited. In Romania and Poland—traditional major buyers of Moldovan plums—there is still a sufficient supply of locally produced plums. Germany and the Baltic states usually join the list of buyers of Moldovan plums even later—in late September and October.
According to market operators, the preferences of foreign buyers vary. In Romania, consumers prefer large, round, dark plums, while in Germany, they prefer medium-sized, oblong plums with an intact light waxy coating. In any case, traders store high-density plums for subsequent export.
On Moldova’s domestic market, demand for dessert plums is low, as operators note, due to a wide range of alternatives. Affluent consumers are still willing to buy late-season (remontant) berries and summer grapes at the end of summer. During this period, the lower-income segment of the population is preoccupied with expenses related to preparing their children for the school year. Mass domestic demand for plums—the cheapest stone fruit—will emerge on the Moldovan retail market closer to mid-September. Moreover, during the first half of fall, plums will compete for consumers’ wallets with the relatively inexpensive fresh “Moldova” grapes.
As Andrei Zbanka notes, at the end of August, prices for Moldovan plums are being supported to some extent by fairly strong demand from dried fruit producers. This category of processors purchases plums for industrial use at an average price of 4–5 lei per kilogram. Plums intended for freezing are purchased at an even higher price, but in this case, the quality requirements for the fruit (size, absence of physical defects) are comparable to those for dessert plums. Plums for puree (paste) production are currently sold in small quantities due to the modest purchase prices offered by canning factories.
Plums in Ukraine and the EU
In the neighboring country, plums were significantly more expensive than in Moldova for most of August. However, this week, an oversupply of plums from local farms has put significant downward pressure on prices in this segment of the country’s fruit market, according to analysts at the EastFruit project.
At the end of the last workweek of August, prices for plums from local farms ranged from 15 to 35 hryvnia per kilogram ($0.34–0.79 per kilogram), which is, on average, 24% cheaper than at the end of the previous workweek.
In other words, plum prices in Ukraine and Moldova have practically evened out. In this regard, it is worth noting that in previous seasons, given this price situation, Ukrainian traders have attempted to “displace” their Moldovan counterparts in the plum segment of Romania’s fruit market.
Recently, Freshplaza, a respected news source in the fruit industry, published an article in which an Italian farmer laments that he will have to uproot a relatively young orchard of “Stanley” plums. Since the current purchase price for plums in Italy is around 0.45–0.50 euros per metric ton, this means the grower makes no profit.
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