Almond Harvest in Moldova: How to Build an Efficient Mechanized Workflow

Moldova's Catalogue of Plant Varieties lists eight almond cultivars, all admitted for the central, southern and southeastern zones, not the northern one, and all harvested in September. Perveneț Hramova and Victoria were registered in 2002, Alb Moldovenesc, F2 2052 (Rihter 2052), Hramov Standard, Delicat and the introduced Meteor in 2008, and Cristina in 2014; a horticultural research institute in Chișinău is listed as originator and maintainer of all eight.

The catalogue lists almond seedlings and the almond-peach hybrid GF 677 among its rootstocks but gives no bloom dates or frost behavior, and spring frost has been costly: frost in early April 2022 damaged almonds in bloom in the south, EastFruit reported, and the same outlet wrote in 2021 that spring frosts had sped up the removal of old almond orchards.

A farm profiled in 2022 said its first almond trees, planted in 2008, bore no fruit until a full soil analysis identified the problem, so test the soil and choose sites free of cold air pockets before planting. No Moldovan source on spacing was found: plan rows, headlands and trunk height around the shaker, sweeper and harvester, and check them with OVE Europe.

Almond has a very short dormancy, EastFruit wrote in January 2023: after it, even a short warm spell can restart growth and bloom, when the trees have no frost resistance, and a January thaw may be the greater risk in the south. Warm spells do occur: the State Hydrometeorological Service recorded +17.0 °C at Ceadîr-Lunga on 9 January 2025, a January value seen about once in 30 to 40 years, though flower-bud losses in the main fruit crops stayed within the natural norm that winter.

Spring frost and summer drought both struck in 2025, the service reported. Frosts of -1 to -3 °C occurred almost everywhere on 6 to 13 April, and of -4 to -6 °C in the northern half on 7, 9 and 11 April; the month's frosts damaged fruit crops in bloom (almond is not named). From June to August the southern half had atmospheric and soil drought, with 10 to 16 days of 35 °C or more in the south against a norm of 3 days. No Moldovan irrigation guidance for almond was found.

EPPO lists Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni, a bacterial pathogen of almond and stone fruit, as present in Moldova on 1980 information, and does not list the almond seed wasp or the peach twig borer there, which is not proof of absence. For care work, the ID DAVID SURFEED spreads solid manure, the ID-XL weeds the tree row, the Mañez Lozano Mega Twister S6 sprays tall, dense canopies and the ID DAVID ID-REX disc pruner makes lateral and topping cuts.

Two 2022 stories from Moldova describe machine harvesting. A group of five producers in the south said that collecting almonds by hand had taken up to two months of daily work and lost a good part of the crop, while machines let them harvest much faster and on time; a farm profiled the same year said it gathers its almonds with specialized machinery. In orchards planted for machines on suitable ground, mechanized harvesting can bring the crop in on time, with less risk of nuts deteriorating while they wait.

All registered cultivars are harvested in September, and September rain varies widely. Cahul in the south averages 48 mm on 7 days with at least 0.1 mm (1961 to 1990, via WMO), but on 14 to 16 September 2024, 130 to 190 mm fell in some central and southern districts, amounts the State Hydrometeorological Service said occur in September about once in 20 to 40 years, and Leova and Cantemir had 105 mm in 8 hours. This guide therefore shows prompt pickup, with hulling and drying at once, alongside catching frames.

Flory harvesting machinery is available in Moldova through OVE Europe for both systems. On the ground, the VR700 Shaker, V62 Sweeper and 8772 Harvester feed the 1500 Conveyor Cart and ST14 Shuttle. Off the ground, the Flory COE C7 Shaker and L2 Receiver catch the almonds in a frame around the trunk, the Flory COE B8 Cart and VS25 Shuttle carry them, and the 4840 Field Elevator loads trailers in both systems.

A Moldovan farm profiled in 2022 said it takes its machine-harvested almonds to cleaning facilities and a drying chamber, where they dry for up to 40 hours at no more than 34 °C. In this workflow, promptly picked or frame-caught almonds are hulled while the hulls are fresh and then dried in the shell under control, out of the rain.

Moldova voted for the interstate standard GOST 32857-2014 for sweet almond kernels, which sets three classes and a moisture limit of 6.5%. Government Decision 724/2024 on contaminants in food transposes Regulation (EU) 2023/915, which allows 8.0 µg/kg of aflatoxin B1 and 10.0 µg/kg in total in almonds for consumers, and 12.0 and 15.0 µg/kg in almonds to be sorted first.

Moldova imported 234.8 t of shelled almonds in 2025, 85.8 t of it from the United States, its largest supplier every year from 2015 to 2024, and exported 146.9 t in shell, two thirds of it to Türkiye and most of the rest to Italy (UN Comtrade via WITS). Jessee, whose processing lines OVE Europe supplies, builds hulling, drying, in-shell cleaning and sizing, and shelling systems; its Airlegs nut cleaner was developed for the almond industry.

For general information only. Information may become outdated and does not replace site-specific professional advice. Consult a qualified agronomist and confirm equipment suitability with OVE before acting.