Wholesale prices for inshell walnuts in Moldova started decreasing at the beginning of February. Based upon data by the EastFruit monitoring, they fell in price by an average of 7% – up to 28 MDL/kg ($1.48/kg) by the beginning of the second week of the month. This is the level of the average price in December last year. Many large nut growers-traders believe that the reduction of wholesale prices for inshell nuts may continue in February. There are no prerequisites for stabilization, let alone growth.
According to the operators of the Moldovan market, the main reason for the February reduction in the price of inshell nuts is the lack of demand from the main buyers in Germany and France. Prices for inshell walnuts in the mass market chain retail of these countries have fallen below 4 EUR/kg since late December – early January. It can be assumed that retailers buy inshell walnuts in bulk at 1.5-1.7 EUR/kg maximum even from European walnut growers and wholesalers. In these conditions, only large volumes of cheap high-quality inshell walnuts from outside the EU may be of any interest to European traders.
There are still large stocks (perhaps thousands of tonnes) of high-quality walnuts from last year’s harvest in Moldova, but they are stored in dozens of walnut farms. Even the largest of them cannot offer their own batches of hundreds of tonnes of inshell walnuts now – especially at a price much lower than the average in the Moldovan market and given the growing euro against the Moldovan leu.
Wholesale prices for inshell nuts in the domestic market of Moldova in January 2023 were supported by a slightly revived demand for walnut kernels. Export-quality kernels from walnut farms with post-harvest infrastructure (chopping, sorting) were in demand – they were sold to export traders at 70-75 MDL/kg ($ 3.68-3.94/kg). However, as walnut growers note, the demand for high-quality sorted kernels also decreased in February.
