Conflict
This is that infrequent case where the context is more important than the outcome. So first, a little background.
According to the estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry MAIA at the end of January 2026, the annual capacity of the Moldovan market of poultry meat is 91 thousand tons, of which only 64 thousand tons are covered by own production. The remaining part of the market is filled by imports, in the structure of which 76% are supplies of poultry meat from Ukraine. And here is what is curious.
According to the representatives of the Association of Producers and Importers of Meat of the Republic of Moldova, supplies of chilled and frozen chicken from Ukraine to the Moldovan meat market are highly centralized. In the sense that there are only three or four producers of this product. And about 60-90% of Ukrainian supplies of chicken to Moldova are products of only one producer. But not any, but JSC “Myronivsky Hliboproduct” (the rest of the commodity flow of Ukrainian chicken to Moldova is provided by two more large enterprises – from Dnipro and Nikopol). MHP is the largest producer of poultry products (about 1.2 thousand tons per day) not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe as a whole. The company has authorization to export its products to the European Union, Great Britain, USA, Canada, Japan and South Korea. MHP’s official partner in Moldova estimates the monthly import of Ukrainian poultry meat to the Moldovan market at about 1.5 thousand tons, including chilled chicken – 0.8-0.9 thousand tons. That is, even with all the current wartime difficulties, this volume for MHP is one or two days of work. Such a loss is unlikely to cause tangible economic damage to MHP. But the very fact of claims of the specialized Moldovan department to the safety of poultry products from Ukraine, indirectly affecting the interests of MHP, can potentially create some reputational costs for this vertically integrated agricultural holding (from its own feed and hatching eggs, to semi-finished and finished products). Of course, if international partners take the Moldovan ANSA’s claims to Ukrainian poultry farming seriously.
For its part, the Association of the Union of Poultry Farmers of Ukraine reported that the restrictions on imports of poultry meat and poultry feed from Ukraine to Moldova are artificial and have the purpose of eliminating a competitor in the Moldovan market of poultry meat represented by Ukraine.
“The reason for imposing restrictions was the detection of metronidazole – a broad-spectrum antibiotic, which is prohibited for use in Ukraine, EU countries and the Republic of Moldova for productive animals,” the report says. – During the inspection of ready-made poultry feed in Ukraine, the presence of metronidazole was confirmed in only one sample”. At the same time, the association considers it “very strange that the ANSA decision bans not only the import of ready-made feed from Ukraine, but also poultry meat, in which no discrepancies were found”. And draws attention to the fact that Ukrainian chicken is currently exported to Europe and “no notifications (and bans on supplies, Logos Press note) from European and British institutions”. The Union of Poultry Farmers of Ukraine called for negotiations with the authorized state bodies of Moldova “to prevent biased actions against Ukrainian exporters and to increase bilateral trade in the future”.
Earlier, the ANSA Agency denied the inability to detect metronidazole residues in meat. And the Ministry of Agriculture noted that the temporary suspension of chicken imports from one country does not automatically mean a deficit in the domestic market of Moldova. Economic operators can compensate for the shortage by diversifying the sources of supply, and the situation may become an incentive for local producers, who will be able to cover the demand by expanding their capacities. In other words, the specialized ministry indirectly confirmed that the situation can be partly interpreted (and used by the beneficiaries, Logos Press note) as an element of protectionism.
Negotiations
A source in the Association of Meat Producers and Importers (eight member companies, chairman Vitaliy Grabovsky, deputy chairman Anatoliy Tritiak) claims that on the same day in January, when the first truck with Ukrainian chicken was stopped by ANSA inspectors at the border and sent back to Ukraine, the organization held a meeting. According to its results, the association agreed its version of what happened and presented it to Ukrainian business partners. Further, the situation developed in its own way – through interdepartmental and diplomatic channels.
Recently, Ukrainian and Moldovan mass media reported that the Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksiy Sobolev discussed with representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and ANSA agency a way to solve the problem of temporary restrictions on the supply of Ukrainian poultry products. Oleksiy Sobolev noted that Moldova is a critically important market for Ukrainian poultry producers: last year exports to the Moldovan market amounted to 18.4 thousand tons – worth $32.7m.
“Ukraine is confident in the quality of its products, and this is confirmed by stable exports to the EU market. We are ready for maximum openness and provision of additional guarantees, in particular through conducting research in accredited laboratories upon request,” the Ukrainian minister said. Following the meeting, the parties agreed to strengthen interdepartmental control in order to unblock the flow of goods “in the near future”.
Interests of the parties
The “price of the issue” and its consequences will depend on how long the ban on imports of Ukrainian chicken will last.
For the domestic consumer in the short term, the consequences are unlikely to be too serious. First of all, because the second half of winter is a period of seasonal reduction of demand/sales on the meat market of Moldova. There are many reasons for this: the “price of freedom” – winter energy bills, seasonal tax payments, the continuing decline in the purchasing power of the population, and the Great Orthodox Lent. And, perhaps, the most important – the already acquired immunity to “creeping fasting prices”.
For domestic poultry farmers, it is obvious that the longer the ban “on competitors” lasts, the better. Some market players even claim that after the January holidays, due to the decline in sales, some large poultry producers had to send part of the produced chicken – hundreds of tons – for freezing and storage. And this is an additional cost. But, thanks to the halt of chicken imports from Ukraine, Moldovan poultry producers have a “window of opportunity” – to sell more chilled meat on the domestic market at once – “from wheels”. And even during the “low season”.
By the way, there should be movements on foreign markets as well – recently Moldova got the right to sell poultry meat on the European Union market. And in this context, the principal intolerance of Ukrainian metronidazole by the ANSA Agency is only a “plus in the karma”.
And one more important aspect. At the moment, poultry meat in the European Union is significantly more expensive than in Moldova. For example, according to market operators, chilled chicken in Romania is more expensive than in Moldova by 10-15 lei/kg (average wholesale price – 2,3-2,5 Euro/kg, without VAT). Obviously, for this reason, the Euroquota-2026 for preferential import of poultry meat to Moldova (6.5 thousand tons) was chosen slowly in January-February.
For industrial consumers-processors of meat, the current situation does not look too good, but not quite bad either. On the one hand, small meat producers have always been the first clients of poultry meat importers. When purchasing even small batches, Ukrainian chicken (chilled carcass) was cheaper than Moldovan chicken by 1-2 lei/kg before the ban was introduced. Even some large meat processing plants diversified their raw material flows: about 50-60% of poultry meat was purchased from the two largest poultry farms in Moldova and produced in their own farms, while the rest was purchased in Ukraine.
Thus, the head of one of the largest meat-processing enterprises in Moldova noted that he signed a contract with the Ukrainian holding for 2026 for the supply of about 300 tons of chicken per month, about 3.6 thousand tons per year. In case the temporary restrictions turn out to be a long-term measure, in his opinion, it is far from certain that local poultry farmers will be able to sharply increase production volumes. As it is a question of free premises, hatching eggs, and special feed (some of them were also purchased in Ukraine). However, at least he is satisfied with the fact that domestic major suppliers of chicken meat are now confirming their earlier commitments to supply raw materials.
For importers of poultry meat, as it is not surprising, the situation is not critical yet either. According to their estimates, the stock of poultry meat imported earlier is about 1-1.5 thousand tons. This will be enough for a month or two of quiet sales.
