Moldova produced 35,000 tons of nuts last year

Chisinau, 5 April /MOLDPRES/- In 2018-2019 season, world nut production reached about 2 million tons. 35 thousand tons of them were produced in the Republic of Moldova. The data were presented at a national conference held yesterday in Chisinau.

Attending the conference were over 100 producers of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds, officials and experts from Moldova, Italy, Romania and Ukraine.

Oleg Tarsana, president of the Moldovan Association of producers of nut crops, said our country is a small but important player in the world nut trade. In this season, it is estimated that the European Union will import more than 310 thousand tons of nuts in shell, and Moldova will cover 9% of these imports.

According to Tarsana, in order to take advantage of the opportunities of the European market, the producers in our country must have a high quality production, offer a varied assortment, meet the technological requirements, associate and implement Moldova Walnuts brand.

The event was also attended by Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Nicolae Ciubuc. He said that the institution he is leading will work out a horticultural programme for next seven years, which will include concrete actions for development of nuts sector. "We aim to diversify and increase state support in the development of this strategic branch for the agricultural sector", he said.

Among the main problems in the sector raised by the experts present at the national conference are the insufficiency of plantations with productive varieties, the insufficiency of the association for the creation and management of the washing, cleaning, packaging and sorting of walnuts; the lack of homogeneous batches and stable chains of collection and the mismanagement of nuts, the lack of a trademark and a well defined product for key markets, the lack of a complex marketing strategy.

There are about 30,000 ha of nut plantations in the Republic of Moldova.