President Maia Sandu on Monday said that owing to the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Republic of Moldova practically does not export to Russia. But the Moldovan apples, for example, until recently were exported almost exclusively to Russia. What problems appeared in the export of fruit, what risks and dangers are faced and what opportunities are created by this difficult period were among the topics discussed by the experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Dilemma of Moldovan fruit exports: to the East and/or to the West?”.
Igor Boțan, the standing expert of IPN News Agency’s project, said the export of fruit and vegetables to the Russian Federation is stipulated in the Free Trade Agreement signed on October 18, 2011. “The document that was signed by 11 CIS states covers trade in goods between parties and allows this trade to be based on international law norms. For the Republic of Moldova, this agreement took effect in 2013. Two years later, the Free Trade Agreement signed by the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation in 1993 expired or was interrupted. So, we see that within the CIS the agreement took effect in 2013, while the bilateral agreement was annulled in 2015,” stated the expert.
According to him, in September 2013, the Russian Federation imposed sanctions against the Republic of Moldova and the import of Moldovan wine was banned. In August 2014, Russia decided to introduce customs duties on the import of some of the Moldovan products, such as vegetables, meat, wheat and alcoholic beverages. “The explanation was that the Republic of Moldova started to re-export after it signed the Association Agreement with the European Union. Until then, the Republic of Moldova annually sold agrifood products to the value of about €125 million to Russia”.
Igor Boțan noted that after this Russian ban, the bilateral trade entered the so-called “manual regime”. More exactly, the Moldovan exporters were able not to pay taxes during very short periods of time, usually of half a year and this ‘concession’ on the part of Russia depended on the resuts of elections in Moldova, as it happened in 2019, in 2021. Unexpectedly, on March 5, 2022, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor announced that the customs duties on the import of seed fruit and seeds were abolished for five states, including Moldova. It happened due to the war waged by Russia against Ukraine and to the sanctions imposed by the international community.
Vasile Șarban, secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, said the situation is rather precarious as the Republic of Moldova is a large fruit producer whose fruit exports to Russia were considerable. “This is not so good as in 2014, when Russia imposed the ban, the state tried to encourage the agricultural producers to identify other markets and investments were this way made to improve the quality and assortment of production, but the situation is as it is.
“About 350,000 tonnes of apples are annually produced in the Republic of Moldova. About 200,000 tonnes are processed in the food industry, approximately 60,000-70,000 tonnes are consumed domestically and the other quantity is exported. Regrettably, the Republic of Moldova directed about 95-98% of its apple exports to the Russian Federation. This is a lot and this is risky for an agricultural country. The situation is precarious because the route to the Russian Federation is much longer. The logistical side was seriously affected and additional costs are incurred,” explained the official.
According to him, the authorities took measures to help export Moldovan products to other target markets, such as Europe, the Middle East and India. Moldova’s apple exports to Russia are now insignificant. The prospects are unclear. There are now about 105,000 tonnes of apples in Moldova.
Viorel Chivriga, economic policy expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”, said that the Republic of Moldova in 2005 was driven away from Russia’s market with animal products and later with vegetal products, while in 2006 its exports of alcoholic drinks were also banned. This was a clear signal that the Russian market is very unstable and works not according to economic rules, but to the rules imposed by the political class. Methods to protect the country and the companies should have been identified since then.
“As to an eventual opportunity to enter the market of the Russian Federation, this is not really viable. We cannot enter the Russian market. Right today, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland blocked traffic and closed their borders to goods to and from Russia. I don’t think there will be a Moldovan who will dare to export products through the Western part of Ukraine and Belarus, or this would be a very courageous person,” said the expert.
“On the other hand, we should be reasonable. There are many apple producers in the Republic of Moldova. We close the list of the ten largest apple producers of the world, but these states are in different regions of the world, including in Asia, Western Europe and other regions to which we also export. That export is managed by very courageous persons, with initiative, but they cannot help solve the problems we face at the moment. The quantity is relatively large and time was lost when it was very clear that a conflict between two states was inevitable. It was very clear that something was to be done and we shouldn’t have forgotten that the apples that are currently in stores are of a high quality,” stated Viorel Chivriga, noting the export policies and strategies should have been reviewed back in 2005.
The public debate titled “Dilemma of Moldovan fruit exports: to the East and/or to the West?” was the 234th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
