From 17th to 26th January, Moldova is showcasing its agricultural sector at Berlin’s International Green Week 2025, a leading global event for the agri-food industry.
The country’s stand has attracted high-profile visitors, including EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen and Germany’s Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, underscoring Moldova’s strengthening ties with the EU.
Moldova’s Agriculture Minister, Ludmila Catlabuga, thanked European and German officials for their support through initiatives like the Moldovan-German Agricultural Policy Dialogue (ADP), which helps align Moldova’s agri-food sector with EU standards. She emphasised the importance of this cooperation in advancing European integration.
Yet, as Moldova progresses along its tenuous path towards EU accession and away from an energy-dependent relationship weaponised by Russia, the EU’s agri-food cooperation efforts must offer the Moldovan industry supportive policies to facilitate its growth within the EU system while avoiding the imposition of ineffective, harmful regulation.
Moldova’s International Green Week participation has spotlighted the significant potential of its agri-food industry, with Commissioner Hansen recognising the country as a key EU partner that Brussels will back “in order to develop a competitive, innovative and sustainable agriculture” ahead of Chisinau’s 2030 target date for EU accession.
In 2024, Moldova took major strides towards this goal, with the Commission opening formal accession negotiations, alongside partner candidate Ukraine, last June and Moldovans narrowly voting “Yes” to EU membership in October.
Amid Moscow’s cynical closing of the gas taps to Moldova in January, the EU is offering vital support to Moldovan’s crucial food production industry, helping to establish itself as a reliable partner. Indeed, Moldova’s small farmers and food producers are set to benefit from major regulatory changes spearheaded by a collaboration between the EU and Moldova’s agriculture and food safety authorities.
Approved by Chisinau on 15th January, the new red tape-cutting rules are designed to reduce costs for small producers, with key provisions affording local farmers greater regulatory flexibility in production spaces and the possibility to sell and market directly to consumers and businesses.
Agritourism guesthouses can now legally purchase and offer household-produced staples including milk, dairy products, plant-based products and wine – the jewel in the crown of Moldova’s agri-food sector and a major EU export.
Building on the agricultural rapprochement of the EU’s ‘Solidarity Lanes’ initiative – which has enabled Moldova to significantly ramp up its food exports in recent years – these reforms will prove crucial in strengthening the country’s rural economy and preparing the ground for Chisinau’s Single Market integration.
While Brussels’ recent support has sent a positive signal to Moldova’s farmers, certain vestiges of the last Commission’s largely-abandoned ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy represent a major threat for the country’s agri-food competitiveness should these policies be adopted ahead of the country’s EU accession. The EU executive’s front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label proposal exemplifies this problem, with France’s divisive Nutri-Score posing the greatest obstacle.
With its narrow focus on sodium, fat and sugar, Nutri-Score’s traffic-light assessment of food products has alienated traditional producers across the EU, prompting growing opposition from member-states including Portugal, Greece, Czechia and Poland. European farmers have long decried Nutri-Score’s punitive, competitiveness-hindering scores of culinary staples like PDO cheeses and cured meats – whose rich micronutritional value is completely overlooked.
Nutri-Score continues to draw scientific criticism, most recently with a study from the Medical University of Warsaw notably warning that the label’s failure to “take into account the full nutritional value of products…may mislead the consumer.”
Nutri-Score’s latest algorithm changes have only deepened concerns, as nutrient-rich products like whole milk and prunes are now rated the same as Diet Coke, which has raised serious doubts about the system’s scientific legitimacy. Joining the local farmer-led resistance, Danone is among the largest European food producers which has recently axed the Nutri-Score label from its products as a result of the new algorithm’s misleading downgrades of its dairy and plant-based drinkable products – ironically, similar products to those being supported by EU-backed reforms in Moldova.
For Moldovan producers, the risks are not hypothetical. Romania’s recent reversal of its Nutri-Score ban is particularly concerning considering its position as Moldova’s largest trade and investment partner, with economic exchanges between the neighbouring countries tripling to €3 billion in the past decade. What’s more, with Nutri-Score already making inroads in accession partner Ukraine, its influence could spread to Moldova even before EU accession.
As the Nutri-Score debacle underscores, the EU should set aside unnecessary regulatory burdens that risk stifling Moldova’s ascendant agri-food industry. Encouragingly, Brussels has taken a constructive engagement approach with Chisinau.
Adopted last October, the EU’s €1.8 billion Growth Plan, the largest financial package since Moldova’s independence, is a game-changer, with Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen asserting that this support has the “potential of doubling the size of the country’s economy in a decade.” With its focus on rural development, Single Market access and direct financial aid, this package must prioritise Moldova’s farmers, ensuring the sector becomes a pillar of the country’s economic transformation.
Given that farmland covers 75% of Moldova’s territory—the highest proportion in Europe—agriculture is central to its future development.
The Agri-Food Partnership Platform (APP), launched in 2023 with seven EU countries and FAO support, is already mobilising resources to drive sustainable and competitive food production. At the recent APP ministerial meeting in Berlin, Cem Özdemir rightly stressed the need to engage Moldova’s farmers in the accession process, while Ludmila Catlabuga highlighted how transforming agriculture will be essential in bridging Moldova’s rural-urban income gap divide and bolstering economic resilience.
EU integration offers both immense opportunities and significant challenges, placing Moldova’s agricultural sector at a pivotal crossroads.
The goodwill on display at Green Week 2025 signals strong momentum, yet the Commission’s words must be matched with ambitious, industry-supporting policies while avoiding undue burdens. Amid ongoing Russian interference, Brussels must recognise that Moldova’s success is Europe’s success, ensuring its producers are empowered to thrive upon EU accession in the coming years.
Photo by Sasha Pleshco on Unsplash
