Honey

Export from Moldova

Moldova is an open country for all kinds of foreign investments. Moldovan government reports that foreign investors are free to "place their investments throughout the Republic of Moldova, in any area of business activity". 

Moldova has an agricultural economy with a strong but volatile growth performance, vulnerability to climatic and global economic conditions.

Moldova is known for its wines. For many years viticulture and winemaking in Moldova were the general occupation of the population. The country has a well established wine industry with big vineyard areas used for commercial production. Most of the country's wine production is made for export. 

Moldova's rich soil and temperate continental climate have made the country one of the most productive agricultural regions, and a major supplier of agricultural products in southeastern Europe.

Exports in Moldova increased in the last year. As a result of an expansion of the textile industry, exports of clothing are gaining importance and already account for the biggest share of exports. Moldova's exports to the EU grow very dynamically, especially exports of agricultural goods. Among exported goods are also machinery and appliances, vegetable products and other foodstuffs and beverages.

The European Union is Moldova's biggest trade partner. Moldova’s main export partners are Russia, Romania, Italy, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

Moldova's main exports are:

• Wine
• Electrical Machinery 
• Fruit and Nuts 
• Oil Seeds
• Clothing
• Cereals
• Pharmaceutical
• Knitted apparel
• Furniture
• Preserved Fruits and Vegetables

Import to Moldova

Moldova's economy relies heavily on its agriculture sector, featuring fruits, vegetables, wine, and tobacco.
Moldova's goal of EU integration has resulted in some market-oriented progress. Moldova experienced better than expected economic growth in the last years due to increased agriculture production, to new economic policies, and to the receipt of EU trade preferences connecting Moldovan products to the world's largest market. Moldova has signed some trade agreements with the EU and achieved a Free Visa Regime in 2014.

Moldova joined the World Bank in 1992. Since then the Bank has undertaken many steps for reducing poverty and fostering economic growth in the country.

Moldova mainly imports petroleum, natural gas, textile yarn, pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery and road vehicles.

Moldova's main imports are:

• Oil
• Natural gas
• Industrial Machines
• Cars and car details
• Pharmaceuticals
• Plastics
• Telephones
• Paper 
• Iron and Steel
• Insulated wire

Moldova’s main import partners are Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Italy, China, Turkey and Poland. 
Moldova imports almost all of its energy supplies from Russia and Ukraine.

Honey has been used by countless cultures all around the world over the past 2,500 years and no wonder! Over its history as a food, the main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, desserts, such as mel i mat, as a spread on bread, and as an addition to various beverages, such as tea, and as a sweetener in some commercial beverages. Honey barbecue and honey mustard are other common flavors used in sauces. Honey is truly a remarkable substance, made even more extraordinary by the process with which it is made. This blend of sugar, trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids is quite unlike any other sweetener on the planet. Also, many honey's health benefits have made it an important element of traditional medicines and scientists also are convinced of honey medicinal value.

Honey has been valued as a natural sweetener long before sugar became widely available in the 16th century. Honey production flourished in ancient Greece and Sicily. Nowadays it's China, Turkey, and Argentina that are the top producers of honey, followed by Ukraine and the United States. Mexico is also an important producer of honey, providing more than 4% of the world's supply. Most of Mexico's Yucatn producers are small, family operations who use original traditional techniques, moving hives to take advantage of the various tropical and subtropical flowers. At Export Portal are presented all the types of honey from all the quality honey producers of the world. We have suppliers of honey from all the countries. 

Buying honey can be a tricky process if you don't know what signs of a good hony quality to look fo. We will help you understand what are the indicators of quality of honey. 

• High-quality honey can be distinguished by fragrance, taste, and consistency. Ripe, freshly collected, high-quality honey should flow from a knife in a straight stream, without breaking into separate drops. After falling down, the honey should form a bead. The honey, when poured, should form small, temporary layers that disappear fairly quickly, indicating high viscosity. If not, it indicates excessive water content (over 20%) of the product. Honey with excessive water content is not suitable for long-term preservation.
• Crystallized honey, also called "granulated honey" or "candied honey" is not bad, either, it's just honey in which some of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution as the monohydrate.  Honey that has crystallized can be returned to a liquid state by warming.
• Pasteurized honey is honey that has been heated in a pasteurization process which destroys yeast cells. It also liquefies any microcrystals in the honey, which delays the onset of visible crystallization. However, excessive heat during the pasteurization affects appearance - it darkens the natural honey color, changes the taste and fragrance.

We have prepared a classification of honey to help you understand which kinds of honey are there and how they differ. Honey is classified by its floral source, and there are also divisions according to the packaging and processing used. There are also regional honeys. Let's see:

• Usually, honey is classified by the honey's floral source of the nectar from which it was made. Honey is traceable to floral source and therefore region of origin. 
• Blended honey means that it is a mixture of two or more honeys differing in floral source, color, flavor, density or geographic origin. 
• Polyfloral honey, also known as wildflower honey, derives from the nectar of many types of flowers. The taste may vary from year to year, and the aroma and the flavor can be more or less intense, depending on which bloomings are prevalent.
• Monofloral honey is made primarily from the nectar of one type of flower. Different monofloral honeys have a distinctive flavor and color.
• Honeydew honey is made when instead of taking nectar, bees take honeydew, the sweet secretions of aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects. Honeydew honey is very dark brown in color, with a rich fragrance of stewed fruit or fig jam, and is not as sweet as nectar honeys.

There is also a classification of honey by packaging and processing you should be aware of when buying honey. Generally, honey is bottled in its familiar liquid form, but can be sold in other forms, as well it can be subjected to a variety of processing methods.

• Raw honey is honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling or straining, without adding heat - although some honey that has been "minimally processed" is often labeled as raw honey. Raw honey contains some pollen and may contain small particles of wax. 
• Filtered honey is very clear and will not crystallize as quickly, making it preferred by the supermarket trade. 
• Ultrasonicated honey has been processed by ultrasonication, a non-thermal processing alternative for honey. When honey is exposed to ultrasonication, most of the yeast cells are destroyed. 
• Creamed honey, also called whipped honey, spun honey, churned honey, has been processed to control crystallization. Creamed honey contains a large number of small crystals, which prevent the formation of larger crystals that can occur in unprocessed honey. The processing also produces a honey with a smooth, spreadable consistency.
• Dried honey has the moisture extracted from liquid honey to create completely solid, nonsticky granules. This process may or may not include the use of drying and anticaking agents. Dried honey is used in baked goods, and to garnish desserts.
• Comb honey is honey still in the honeybees' wax comb. It traditionally is collected by using standard wooden frames in honey supers. The frames are collected and the comb is cut out in chunks before packaging. As an alternative to this labor-intensive method, plastic rings or cartridges can be used that do not require manual cutting of the comb, and speed packaging. Comb honey harvested in the traditional manner is also referred to as "cut-comb honey".
• Chunk honey is packed in widemouth containers consisting of one or more pieces of comb honey immersed in extracted liquid honey.

Now you know everything there is to know about honey and can start choosing a variety of honey to buy from our online food and agricultural produce market. We have all the best honey presented: buy organic honey,  buckwheat honey, acacia honey, medical honey, honeycomb honey, find white honey and wildflower honey, unpasteurized honey or unprocessed honey, buy local honey in your country, choose clover honey and chestnut honey and all other kinds!

Customs requirements of Moldova

Moldovan Customs Contacts:

Website: http://www.customs.gov.md/ 

Email: customs@customs.gov.md 

Telephone: +37322279210 / +37322279213 

Address: Columna str., 30, Chisinau, MD-2001, Republic of Moldova

Moldovan Customs Call Centre 

Telephone: +373(22) 57-41-11

E-mail: callcenter@customs.gov.md 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry 

Address: Stefan cel Mare str., 151, MD-2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova

Phone: +373 22 22 15 52

Fax: + 373 22 23 44 25

E-mail: camera@chamber.md

Website: www.chamber.md

The Republic Of Moldova is a small, densely populated country, which gained its independence and became a sovereign state in 1991. It is situated in South-eastern Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula. It shares its borders with Romania and Ukraine.

Since 1991, significant steps have been taken towards improving the business environment in Moldova. In recent years Moldova has made headway on the stabilization front (stable currency and low inflation), but is still involved in structural reforms and the creation of a business-friendly legal and tax environment. Furthermore, Moldova has declared European integration to be a strategic objective. The Government of the Republic of Moldova considers European  integration as a fundamental priority of the domestic and foreign policies of the Republic of Moldova. 

Moldova has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 2001. Since 2008, Moldova has benefited from the Autonomous Trade Preferences (ATP) in its trade with the European Union, received as a result of Moldova's improvements of the institutional framework and in particular procedures on control and certification of origin.

The new trade regime provides for duty and quota free access to EU markets for all products originating in Moldova, except for certain agricultural ones, which are extremely sensitive for the EU internal market (meat, dairy products, white sugar, wine with alcoholic concentration of less than 15%, etc.) for which under the customs free access import tariff quotas apply.

Import and export regulations 

Generally, any kind of goods and transport means may enter and leave the territory of Moldova without any restrictions. There are certain limitations that are provided by the legislation in force, specifically the Customs Code, the Law on customs tariff, other normative legal acts and international agreements signed by the Republic of Moldova. The limitations are provided by law in the interests of national security, protection of public order, environment, intellectual property rights and protection of items of artistic, historical and archaeological value. As part of the non-customs regulations, import licenses are required for the import of tobacco and tobacco products, goods of phytosanitary use, toxic chemical substances, chemical household articles, explosive materials including fireworks, etc.

Goods crossing Moldova’s border should be declared to the customs authority, either by the importer or licensed customs broker on behalf of the importer. The release of goods for the free circulation on the territory of Moldova must be supported by a set of adequate supporting documentation. Generally, the following documents are required to support the declared information: customs declaration, contracts (including annexes), invoices, shipping documents, certificates of origin of goods, conformity certificates and licenses, evidence of payment of import duties and any other documents requested by Customs authorities so as to verify the declared information. 

Import procedures:

The customs fees and duties which need to be paid in an import procedure include the following:

1) Value added tax (VAT), which, barring exceptions, is 20%;

2) Import duty according to the Customs Tariff;

3) Customs processing fee;

4) Excises according to the Fiscal Code;

5) Authorization (license) fees.

Measures of economic policy imply the observance of restrictions on the introduction or import of goods and vehicles into Moldova established for the purpose of economic policy, which provide for licensing, quotas, taxation, price ceilings and thresholds.

The customs clearance, as a rule, takes place at the regional customs office which is nearest to the importer's legal address. Once the stamp "Liber de vama" ("Free from customs") is applied, the imported goods may be released into free circulation.

The customs fees and duties which need to be paid in an import procedure include the following:

• Value added tax (VAT), which, barring exceptions, is 20%;
• Import duty according to the Customs Tariff;
• Customs processing fee;
• Excises according to the Fiscal Code;
• Authorization (license) fees.

Measures of economic policy imply the observance of restrictions on the introduction or import of goods and vehicles into Moldova established for the purpose of economic policy, which provide for licensing, quotas, taxation, price ceilings and thresholds. The customs clearance, as a rule, takes place at the regional customs office which is nearest to the importer's legal address. Once the stamp "Liber de vama" ("Free from customs") is applied, the imported goods may be released into free circulation.

Documents for import:   

Any person or company which carries out import procedures should have the following papers:

• import declaration;
• purchase invoice;
• transport document (CMR or TIR);
• cargo list of goods (a document which accompanies the transport papers and shows detailed type and packaging of imported goods);
• certificate of origin (this is not an obligatory document, but it is needed when imported goods can benefit of preferential tariff schemes);
• veterinary and phytosanitary certificates (these are obligatory papers in case of agricultural products);
• import licenses (import license is needed in special cases and for specific goods, as for example import of tobacco).   

Special conditions for import procedure   

Imports from certain countries enjoy preferential tariff treatment. Such treatment would be applicable only upon the submission of a certificate of origin for the imported goods. In the event such preferential treatment is tied to a quota, the importer will also have to submit an import certificate from the relevant authority  

Export procedures   

The exporter has to submit the customs declaration to the customs office nearest its legal address or nearest to the place that the goods are loaded.  In reasonably justified cases, the customs declaration can be submitted to a border customs office.   

Documents for export

Any person or company which carries out export procedures should have the following papers: 

• export declaration;

• invoice;

• transport document (CMR or TIR);

• cargo list of goods (a document which accompanies the transport papers and shows detailed type and packaging of exported goods);

• certificate of origin (this is not an obligatory document, but it is needed when exported goods can benefit of preferential tariff schemes);

• Sanitary-veterinary and phytosanitary certificates (in case of agricultural products);

• export licenses (in case of export of arms and ammunition)   

Special conditions for export procedure   

Generally, export from the Republic of Moldova is free and does not need an export license. Still, export license is needed in special cases and for specific goods, as for example export of arms and ammunition.  

Sources:

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/moldova/106281/PDF/Customs_Clearance.pdf 

http://migratie.md/en/coming/entrance-territory-state 

http://mecometer.com/infographic/moldova/business-environment-imports-procedure-complexity/