On the Moldovan market, only wholesale prices of the cheapest apple varieties, Idared, Renet Simirenko and some others, have increased by 8 to 10% in the first half of February (compared to January). Prices for apples of more expensive varieties have almost not changed over a month.
At the moment, the difference in price for the best “Idared”, and, for example, apples of “Gala”, “Golden Delicious”, “Granny Smith” clones of average quality is no more than 1-2 MDL/kg ($0.05-0.1/kg).
The reason behind this is that agricultural producers and trading companies send most of the Moldovan apples of premium varieties and high quality directly to supermarket chains in Russia, or to traders supplying these chains. Apples are delivered under long-term contracts, and purchase prices are relatively stable, “rarely changing from week to week.”
At the same time, competition in Russian chain retail is quite high. Moldovan apples compete with apples from Turkey, European “re-exports” and Russian apples of expensive varieties in Russian supermarkets in winter. The availability of alternatives does not allow Moldovan suppliers to raise prices. In their words, “you have to be content with little in order to maintain relatively high export volumes.”
Source: east-fruit.com
