News about Agribusiness
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is preparing a draft decree on introducing a licensing regime for imports of grapes, wine and alcohol from Moldova. This decision protects Ukraine’s economic interests and is a response to the Moldovan side’s restriction of exports of Ukrainian poultry meat, by-products and products containing poultry meat.
From March 2 of this year, Moldovan farmers can apply for participation in the next (fifth) grant competition within the AGGRI project. At this stage, along with livestock farmers, producers from certain segments of fruit production, as well as processors of raw materials, are invited to participate in the competition.
Export of honey from Ukraine in 2025 compared to the figure for 2024 (about 86 thousand tons) decreased by 41.4% – to 50.3 thousand tons. In financial terms, the export of this product from Ukraine in 2025 decreased by 24.9% to $125.4 mln.
In the short term, the growth of exchange quotations for wheat will continue. Grain prices are always tightly linked to oil prices and the US dollar exchange rate. Attacks on Iran have already been converted by rising oil prices and strengthening of the dollar. In this nexus, a rise in the prices of fast traded agri-food commodities is inevitable.
As a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine, more than 600,000 hectares of land owned by agri-food companies from the TOP-100 ranking are in territories controlled by the Russian army. In general, the land bank of companies from the TOP-100 is about 5.3 million hectares: this is a quarter of all sown areas of Ukraine, which are estimated at 23 million hectares. Ukrlandfarming, Agroton and HarvEast suffered the biggest losses.
Romania’s pork industry is experiencing the most acute crisis in the last decade. For five months, many Romanian pork producers have been operating outside the profitability zone. The country’s market is under intense pressure from heavy pork shipments from the European Union, which is shedding its reserves due to the threat of a widespread African swine fever epidemic in Spain. The short-term outlook for the industry is extremely unfavorable.
In the second half of February on the Moldovan walnut market, demand and prices for large quantities of walnuts in shell increased sharply. The result was a series of transactions for hundreds of tons of this product.
The global market for organic pesticides was estimated by the expert community at $5.3 billion by the end of 2025. By 2033, it is projected to increase to $13.1 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 9.7%.
The Government of Kazakhstan has approved an ambitious plan for the development of domestic livestock farming for 2026-30. It envisages a two-thirds to twofold increase in the performance of most branches of this sector.
The gross agrarian product (in comparable prices) for 2025 increased by 13.8% as compared to the corresponding indicator of the previous year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of the Republic of Moldova reports.
Countries in Central and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will take the brunt of food inflation this year, according to Logos Press.
Imports of Moldovan wine, fresh grapes and other wine products into Ukraine may be significantly restricted in the near future. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has prepared amendments to the list of goods whose import is subject to special control in 2026, Logos Press has reported.
In 2025, the Investment Agency (Invest Moldova) attracted 17 foreign investors to the country in the sectors of energy, IT and BPO, financial services, electronics and automotive, agri-food and textile production. Total investments amounted to $46.14 million and 263 new jobs were created.
In 2025, the foreign trade turnover of agricultural and food products between Ukraine and the European Union decreased by 9% compared to the record figure of the previous year – to $15.7 billion, according to Logos Press.
Despite last year’s relatively high crop of mass-market vegetables, some of them will run out of stock in storage within the next two weeks. Not because demand will increase, but because quality will degrade rapidly, Logos Press reports.
About 30-40% of specialized farms plan to expand their berry plantations this year, especially strawberries. This is partly due to the abnormally harsh winter, the late start of the season and rising prices for berries, especially early berries, in Central and Southern Europe, Logos Press reports.
In January 2026, Moldova exported 73.7 thousand tons of cereals worth 276.8 million lei. This is slightly less than a year earlier, but experts call such a start “a fairly stable commercial activity for the winter period,” Logos Press reported.
Foreign trade relations between Moldova and Ukraine have become the subject of heated economic discussions in recent years. And this is against the background of the fact that Chisinau constantly emphasizes Kiev’s unconditional support in the war with Russia, claims “brotherly ties” with its neighbors and unity of European integration aspirations.
Turkish scientists have successfully grown tomatoes in special substrates that mimic lunar and Martian regolith. This is an important step towards the development of sustainable agriculture beyond Earth, Logos Press reports.
The current grain drying tariffs offered by many elevators to Moldovan farmers do not favor the preservation of grain quality and active export, Logos Press reports.
