International trade

The National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) stated that the hostilities in the Persian Gulf continue to have a significant impact on the prices of crude oil and petroleum products.

The sugar market is not about “sweetness”, but about economy in its purest form: excess supply, rising costs and managerial mistakes are instantly converted into price. That is why there is always a lot of information noise around sugar – slogans “let’s provide the market with our own”, “the market needs protection”, “importers are enemies”. But the noise does not change the main thing: the market does not punish imports – the market punishes inefficiency. And today this is evident all over Europe.

UPDATED. Israel’s massive strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots “far exceeded” U.S. expectations and provoked a major rift between the allies for the first time since the military operation against Iran began.

According to Politico, last week EU ambassadors actually “buried” the idea of accelerated accession, stressing that membership should be based solely on merit and full fulfillment of the criteria. Earlier, the publication also wrote that Ukraine’s hopes for quick accession to the EU had been dashed.

The incident with an air strike on Nakhchivan is not related to Iran and will be investigated. This was stated by President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian during a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Early this Monday morning in Asia, Brent crude was up about 15.5% to $107.16/bbl, while U.S. Nymex Light Sweet crude was up more than 17% to $106.77/bbl.

Iraq’s oil production has fallen sharply amid ongoing conflict with Iran and problems with exports through the Strait of Hormuz.

The first week of March on the grain market of Moldova also brought increase of prices for wheat (plus 0,15-0,20 lei/kg) and corn (plus 0,10 lei/kg on average). The strengthening of prices corresponds to the dynamics of exchange prices for goods of this group in Europe, as well as in the European ports of the Black Sea countries. However, according to market operators, at the moment, the biggest influence on prices is the rise in the price of diesel fuel, i.e. transportation logistics, and a significant strengthening of the dollar against the euro and Moldovan leu.

Two batches of chicken meat, one from Ukraine and the other from Poland, imported to Latvia were found to be contaminated with salmonella.

The escalating conflict in Iran has already caused fuel and energy prices to rise and stock markets to plummet.

Tehran is experiencing a “temporary shortage” of fuel amid U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, according to the governor of Iran’s capital province. Residents have been urged to refrain from unnecessary travel and save fuel.

Ukrainian Oschadbank has demanded that the Hungarian authorities return the collection vehicles and valuables that were illegally seized. The institution notes that further defense of the rights of Oschadbank of Ukraine in resolving the incident in Hungary will be focused in two directions. The Bank intends to appeal against the decision on restrictive measures regarding the stay in the EU, which were unreasonably imposed on the employees of the collection team by the migration service of Hungary. It will also take legal steps to recover the bank’s property.

The current working week ended with “green”, i.e. – growing indicators of futures for the whole grain group of commodities, rapeseed and sugar. Exchange analysts see this as a direct impact of the lack of positive news about the imminent prospects for the winding down of hostilities and the elimination of logistical failures in the Middle East. However, the factor of not very good weather is gradually coming into play.

At this year’s Munich Security Conference, transatlanticism was finally buried, but it remains unclear whether Europeans realized this.

Hungary intends to bring the Moldovan-Hungarian cooperation in the defense sector to a new level. This was stated by Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovnicki after a meeting with Moldovan Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii, who paid a visit to Budapest.

More than 91% of all produce samples analyzed last year were in compliance. This is evidenced by the report of the National Food Safety Agency ANSA on monitoring of pesticide residues in food of plant origin.

Countries in the Gulf region will lose between $34 billion and $56 billion in tourism revenue in 2026, with the number of international arrivals to the region dropping to 11-27% year-on-year, according to Logos Press.

Oil quotations continue to grow amid the conflict in the Middle East. Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Qaabi warned that the price of oil could rise to $150 per barrel.

During his first official visit to Azerbaijan, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Mihail Popşoi signed with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov a plan of interdepartmental consultations for 2026-2027.

In February 2026, food prices rose on the world market. The FAO Food Price Index (FPI) averaged 125.3 points last month, up 1.1 points (0.9%) from January.