The National Plum Festival is likely to be held each year on the third Sunday in September. The authors of a relevant bill, a group of PAS MPs, said the initiative is aimed at promoting the Republic of Moldova as a state with high potential for cultivating and processing plums. Data show that plum growing is one of the oldest in Moldova. Plums come second after apples by the volume of production and by the areas occupied by orchards and ranks first by these indicators among stone fruits, IPN reports.

The legislative proposal says the average annual area occupied by plum orchards in 2019-2021 was about 22,100 ha. Of these, 19,800 ha represented fruit yielding orchards with a production volume of about 123,730 tonnes and an average harvest of about 6.2 t/ha. The harvest grew from 4.6 tonnes per ha in 2014 to 6.81 tonnes per ha in 2021.

Plums are the second most exported fresh fruit of Moldova, which was ranked among the top ten exporters in the world with plum exports of 44,915 tonnes of fresh plumes in 2021.

“The idea of instituting such a holiday appeared following requests made by the local public authorities, primarily the authorities of Nisporeni district, where the cultivation of different types of plums developed into a main activity with persistent economic and nutrition significance, with essential progress in the diversification of production and processing of plums,” said the bill authors.

Plum production in 2021-2025 is forecast to grow to about 150,000 tonnes by 2025, which will be twice more than in 2020 owing to the planting of intensive orchards.