Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 25 ISSUE 1
Written by Adrian COJOCARU, Liliana CIMPOIES

In June 2014, the Republic of Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the European Union, a key element of which was the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). Thus, from September 2014 an important part of Moldovan agricultural products started to benefit from this agreement and full liberalization for both sides was presumed to be achieved by July 2016. Over last decade the trade value between the signing parties has doubled, while Moldova's exports of agricultural and agri-food products to the EU have tripled. This alleviates concerns regarding the Moldovan agricultural sector's ability to maintain competitiveness under conditions of eliminated protectionist barriers. This research aims to present export dynamics on the EU market of the main Moldovan agricultural products at the same time revealing the impact of the DCFTA on the competitiveness of these products applying the Net Export Index methodology. Secondary data on trade dynamics of various agricultural commodities was sourced from the UN Comtrade Database. Research results outline the reasons why certain products (e.g cereals, grapes, stone fruits) performed better on the European market, while others had a longer journey in reaching their success.

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