The horticultural sector is an important one in the Republic of Moldova. During the past few years, the sector has followed a positive trend and the rich harvests are a confirmation of this. However, the rich harvests are not always a reason for joy for farmers. This year the rich harvests negatively affected mainly the small producers who didn’t have sufficient capacities to invest in the postharvest and processing industry and in entering markets, Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Nicolae Ciubuc stated in the national conference “Fruit Business in the Republic of Moldova”, IPN reports.

According to the minister, the small purchase prices of fresh fruit are due not to the rich harvest, but rather to the companies’ inability to cope with the production volume, which has been on the rise. The storage facilities and packing houses do not have sufficient capacities either. Investment is needed in the post-harvest infrastructure, development of processing capacities, augmentation of productivity and extension of multiannual plantations. Regrettably, the foreign investors do not hurry to invest in the agricultural sector owing to the risks and difficult working conditions and to the barriers at policy level. “The total value in agriculture represents 1% of all the investments in Moldova,” stated the minister.

MP Ion Balan, chairman of the Parliament’s commission on agriculture and food industry, said the fruit-growing sector in Moldova is one of the few areas that develops dynamically and comes closer to the European standards. The areas of orchards, the volume of production and its quality increase annually, enabling to enter foreign markets and to compete with foreign producers. The problems related to the insufficient development of the postharvest and processing infrastructure could be overcome with the authorities’ support.

The two-day conference involves over 140 fruit growers from Moldova and also experts from the field of fruit growing and traders from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Austria, Israel, and Romania.

There are over 95,000 hectares of apple, plum, peach, apricot, cherry and sour cherry orchards in Moldova.