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Walnuts marketing in Moldova
Content
        Marketing channels
        Exports
        Demand
Marketing channels
        In Moldova walnut production is mainly carried out on a very small scale, making thus necessary the involvement of produce collectors once the produce is harvested. Produce collectors, after gathering the dried nuts, usually also carry out the cracking; sorting; grading and packing subsequent phases. Very often they also export the whole nuts or the kernels. More and more exporting operations are done through companies set up as joint ventures between the above collectors and foreigners who take care of produce distribution in final countries. Sometimes the marketing channel is further complicated by the operations of other middleman who take care of one or more phases of the distribution chain.
 Exports

The following table shows exports of walnuts by country, for the 1994-1996 period.
Table 25: Walnut exports by country from 1994 to 1996 (TM and thousand US$).

Ţara 1989-91 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
World production 919 1036 1043 1073 1097 1066
China 154 210 231 238 240 250
USA 216 210 212 189 244 200
Turkey 117 120 110 115 115 115
Ukraine 77 57 76 77 77 77
Russian Federation - 7 8 8 7 7
France 23 27 22 22 23 28
India 18 28 25 29 26 30
Grecia 23 22 21 21 20 20
Romania 23 20 22 36 33 33
Yugoslavia (Fed.) 32 - - -    
Yugoslavia - 20 18 25 25 33
Republic of Moldova - 15 7 6 5 5
Italy 16 10 11 12 15 15
Byelorusia - 9 9 9 9 9
Chili 8 9 10 13 13 13
Bulgaria 27 17 7 14 14 9
Other countries 185 255 254 259 231 222

Source: Data for 1994-1995 was taken from Comtrade statistics; for 1996 from the Department of Statistics of RM. 
Note: *:The domestic consumption was calculated using a 3.3 coefficient for converting imported: *: The domestic consumption was      calculated using a 3.3 coefficient for converting imported and exported quantities of unshelled nuts into shelled nuts during 1996.

As it can be seen from the above table, the biggest volumes of walnuts are exported to Greece (36% of the 1996 total); France (16%); Turkey (9%); Germany (8%) and Italy (6%). Export volumes, in money terms, are steadily growing both as a total (+581% when 1996 figure is compared with 1994 one) and for main EU importing countries. In 1996, total walnut export was about 9582 tons ( as in shell product), valued about 8,2 millions USD.
Demand
As can be seen from Table 26, domestic consumption (estimated as Apparent Consumption) decreased sharply from 1993 to 1995 due to the drastic increase in the export levels. Table 26: Estimate of Moldovan Apparent Consumption for walnuts during 1993-1995 (MT).
Year Production Imports Exports Domestic consumption
1993 13000 0 2726 10274
1994 13000 0 4311 8689
1995 13000F 0 9582 3418
Note: F=forecast.
The biggest share of walnut kernels are used by the chocolate and confectionery industries, along with the bakery and biscuit sectors. Home consumption takes up the remaining share. Walnut retailing takes place mainly within market boundaries and, to a much more limited extend, through specialized shops.

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