CHISINAU, December 29 Moldova did not export a single ton of beef, pork and poultry in 2023 due to the low productivity of the corresponding products, the online publication mold wrote on Friday. -street.com.
In March, Moldova for the first time received the right to export processed poultry meat and eggs to the European market. As the National Food Safety Agency noted, the decision of the European Commission will help achieve the priority national goal — diversification of markets for Moldovan poultry producers.
“Moldova will not be able to take advantage of the benefits offered by the European Union for the export of meat products, since for 11 months of 2023 it did not export a single ton of beef, pork or poultry. The exception is Transnistria, which supplied 48 tons of poultry meat abroad, but these volumes cannot be considered as exports of meat products from Moldova as a whole,” the publication quotes economic expert Yuri Rizhi.
The analyst noted that the current situation was influenced by two factors: a reduction in production and outbreaks of bird flu and African swine fever.
«The country's slaughterhouses are operating at reduced capacity and the livestock sector is in apparent decline. This difficult situation forces Moldova to resort to importing meat to meet its domestic needs. Without sufficient domestic production, processors rely on external sources to fill the shortage of meat needed for local food industry,» the expert added.
The publication also provides official statistics on meat imports. Thus, this year, the import of poultry meat, beef, and pork into the republic over the 11 months of this year increased to approximately 35.4 thousand tons.
According to official data, there are 43 poultry farms and about 227 thousand individual poultry farms in the republic, in which a total of about 6 million birds are raised. There are also 24 poultry slaughterhouses in Moldova, which annually produce about 45 thousand tons of poultry meat, as well as 12 egg collection centers, where about 253 million eggs are registered annually.