The walnut harvest in 2019 is forecast to be by 10-15% higher than in 2018. But the forecast can be yet inaccurate as the harvest will be lower than expected if the summer months are excessively warm, president of the Association of Walnut Exporters of Moldova Dumitru Vicol stated for IPN.

He said last year’s estimates were promising, but the August heat resulted in the blackening of a large number of walnuts.

As regards sales, Dumitru Vicol stated 2% of the walnut kernel is consumed at domestic level, while the rest is exported. “Moldova is a very small market for walnut consumption. The domestic market is concentrated mainly in Chisinau as the people in districts have walnuts at home,” he said, noting 90% of the Moldovan walnut kernel is exported to the EU.

The president of the Association of Walnut Exporters of Moldova also said that the prices this year halved compared with 2017. The competition in South America is one of the reasons for which the Moldovan producers have to sell walnuts cheaper. Argentina, for example, sells walnuts at a very low price.

Dumitru Vicol also referred to the law that bans early collection of walnuts, saying the law is good, but is not implemented as no one can check if it is obeyed. Unripe walnuts are popular with jam producers from such countries as Poland and France.

“The law is good especially when the harvest is small and I think everything Moldova can do is to ban the export of green walnuts in barrels,” stated Dumitru Vicol.