This week, several news portals in Moldova reported about a significant increase in the price of products of one of the largest domestic producers of confectionery and sweets, Bucuria. Representatives of this company explain the price increase, first of all, by the actions of distributors and trade networks. In addition, they refer to the fact of cocoa and sugar appreciation.
Cocoa powder in Moldova is a hundred percent imported product. But sugar is produced in the country. Local sugar enterprises can significantly influence the market conditions of this product, including those sold to industrial consumers. Logos Press editorial office contacted the executive director of the Union of Sugar Producers of Moldova (UPZM), Inga Pascal, who assured that the price of sugar in Moldova has not increased, but even decreased.
“The information about the increase in sugar prices is not true,” Inga Pascal said. – Moreover, sugar is almost the only food product that has become cheaper in Moldova during the last 12 months. I would like to point out that the wholesale price at which sugar factories sell their products to Moldovan industrial enterprises producing foodstuffs has also significantly decreased. Even more so than the wholesale price of packaged products for retail. If two years ago the price of sugar for industrial consumers in RM averaged 20.5 lei/kg, now it is 15.5 lei/kg. That is, the decrease in prices is very significant – by 24%”.
It is also worth mentioning that according to the National Bureau of Statistics, last year consumer (retail) prices for sugar decreased by 1.95% (at the same time, the increase in food prices in general amounted to 7.4%).
Taking this into account, we can conclude that the price of Moldovan sugar has nothing to do with the rise in the price of Bucuria products.
