The average price of a liter of sunflower oil imported to Moldova amounted to 27.1 lei, while that exported from the country – 22 lei, according to the data of the Association of Grain Exporters Agrocereale.
The largest volume of sunflower oil was supplied to Moldova from Ukraine – 1.94 thousand tons (96% of physical imports), worth 52.4 million lei. The average price per liter – 27 lei. This price level for Ukrainian products allows them to remain competitive on the Moldovan market in the “price/quality” ratio. The second place in terms of supplies is occupied by Russia, which accounts for only 4% of the physical volume (a little more than 81 tons) of sunflower oil imports to RM. However, the average price of Russian oil is noticeably higher – 30.7 lei/liter. Apparently, this indicates that the basis of imports from the Russian Federation is specialized and/or bottled product.
Export flows of sunflower oil from Moldova are fully oriented to the EU countries. The main markets in May were Romania, Bulgaria and Italy, which in total purchased the whole exported volume. Romania was the leader – 0,4 thousand tons (51% of the total volume). Bulgaria shipped 0.27 thousand tons (34%) and Italy 0.12 thousand tons (15%). It is worth noting the large price range: the average price of sunflower oil exported to Romania amounted to 19.6 lei/liter, while Bulgaria purchased oil at 24.9 lei/liter, and Italy – at 23.5 lei/liter. This differentiation may be due to differences in product quality, packaging and/or logistics costs.
