Moldovan Tomato Market Analysis through Use of the Agricultural Marketing Information System

The vegetable production is one of the few agricultural profit-generating sectors based on cash crop growing and marketing. Its tomato sector of the Republic of Moldova has a huge potential to become an important income generator within the national economy. It is obvious that the success of this sector development depends on an efficient marketing system and access to information sources in Moldovan rural areas. The lack of information on tomato markets is a major problem for the Moldovan tomato producers thereby limiting their ability to profitably access new markets. The situation is particularly acute for farmers who reside in rural areas where the information flow is much slower and less reliable once it reaches the farmer. Most of producers and processors lack even basic information on fundamental issues like the market demand on product quantities and quality parameters, towards which markets they should address and what distribution channels choose. Usually they do not know who and where their competitors are and how to compete with them.

The paper reports the Moldovan tomato market analysis that was done using the Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS). The AMIS is a support tool for agricultural (including tomato) and food product market assessment and access to the information on commodity markets by main producers, production inputs and marketing services in the Republic of Moldova.