Significant increase of Moldovan fruits' exports to Romania recorded in current season

Chisinau, 22 November /MOLDPRES/ - The members of the Moldova Fruct Association, with the support of the Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity in Moldova Project of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have participated in the Forum, RO Fruits & Vegetables Show, 2024 edition. The event, which is trademark in the industry of fresh vegetables and fruits, was organized by Modern Buyer for professionals from the entire industry and was dedicated to new tendencies of consumption, innovations and strategies of cooperation in the field.      

„Romania’s market represents an important destination and we treat it as local market, due to the logistic proximity and similar preferences of consumers. I was happy that I was able to interact directly with representatives of retail chains from Romania, such as Metro Cash&Carry, Carrefour, Lidl, Profi, Auchan, Diana. At the same time, I noticed that in the modern trade in Romania, the apples are on the second position in terms of commercialized products and an increase in the demand is recorded for the club varieties. A 23-per cent increase in the demand for grapes and apricots was registered as compared with the year before,’’ the director of the Fani Ltd company, Stefan Bitlan, said.    

Carrefour presented their experience in the cooperation with the Romanian producers, managing to provide the needed quantity of fresh products from local sources. In this respect, it works with 29 cooperatives of producers of fruits and vegetables (over 350 farmers), of which 11 were created by Carrefour. An important aspect represents the development of the capacity of storing and production in parallel.   

The consumers from Romania no longer choose the product according to the criterion of advantageous price, but reoriented themselves to quality, taste and advantages provided. According to data presented by Nielsen (market research company, which analyses data on the behavior of consumers and the market tendencies globally), the fruits and vegetables account for 8.1 per cent of the consumption basket of one Romanian. And in 2024, the sales with fruits and vegetables witnessed a 14-per cent increase against the year before.   

„In the current season, a significant growth of the export of Moldovan fruits to Romania was recorded, especially of apples at the beginning of the new season. The trends which should be followed quite attentively by producers and exports are: innovation, sound lifestyle, sustainability, private trademark, online commerce, environmental protection, Z generation (according to data, in 2030, they will represent the principal category of consumers). The faithfulness of clients at shelves will be able to be maintained only through these criteria. The Romanian consumers want on shelves products without plastic and ever more emphasis is put on cardboard packing, especially B2C, casseroles, paper bags, trays,’’ a specialist in marketing at Moldova Fruct Association, Alexandra Bicu, said.   

Moldova annually exports an ever larger quantity of fruits to Romania. In the first 10 months of 2024, 20,000 tons of apples, 16,000 tons of grapes and 12,000 tons of plums were exported to Romania.