The Moldovan cherry season is about to takeoff. Although the country had to deal with some spring frosts, the produce was nowhere near lost. For one exporter, this year will hopefully bring in new European clients, on top of his existing clientele in Russia and Belarus.<\/p>\n
According to Adrian Cojocaru, head of marketing for MoldovaFruct, the cherries did not suffer too much from the spring frosts that hit the country: \u201cThe fresh produce in Moldova has had it rough, as there were some spring frosts, causing a lot of crops to go lost. Luckily the impact on the cherries was not as severe as we initially thought, in fact we expect the cherries will be larger this season. Generally our country produces over 15 thousand tons of cherries, but this year, we expect to harvest about ten per cent less. Nevertheless, we will still have important quantities for export, as the members of our association only, export over two thousand tons of cherries annually.\u201d<\/p>\n
With covid-19 in the world, this season was obviously completely different in terms of doing business. Cojocaru would\u2019ve liked to meet his clients in person. \u201cThe coronavirus had an impact on the business surely, both positive and negative. We expect to obtain multiple new clients in Europe this year, but at the same time we would have loved to visit our existing partners in Germany in person. Our most important markets are Russia and Belarus, we export about 90 per cent of our total export to these territories. However we\u2019re focusing on reaching some European markets, like Italy and France.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moldova does not really have to compete with other cherry producing countries, as their markets are less targeted. \u201cTurkey has a massive cherry industry, but we don\u2019t really see them as a competitor. They target different markets than we do, and on top of that the demand is large is enough for everyone to co-exist. That doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t strive to improve. We want to reveal our new packaging within a month and have been working hard on updating our association\u2019s website.\u201d Cojocaru explains.<\/p>\n