How big the market is
The food industry is the largest division of Moldovan manufacturing, both by number of companies and by sales. For 2025, 1,055 food companies filed financial statements, with 23,844 employees and sales revenue of 31.7 billion lei. Of these, 765 have fewer than ten employees. Beverage making has 236 companies, 7,132 employees and 8.4 billion lei in sales, and tobacco products 14 companies and 239 employees.
The average gross monthly wage in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 14,492 lei in the food industry, 14,788 lei in beverages and 13,501 lei in tobacco. The average across the economy in the same quarter was 16,355 lei.
What permits apply
The list of permits has 22 licences, and three of them concern this field: importing alcohol, making alcohol, beer and alcoholic products, and activities involving tobacco. All three are issued by the Public Services Agency. The alcohol manufacturing licence has an exception written into its own wording: wine, must-based products and aromatised wine products, which fall under the Vine and Wine Law.
The rest of food production is not licensed, but it cannot start without ANSA. A unit handling meat, milk, fish, eggs or honey needs a sanitary-veterinary authorisation; the others register for food safety. The law says outright that unauthorised or unregistered food activity is illegal. Moldovan products may be placed on the market only if they were made in authorised or registered units.
Meat, dairy and fish
Slaughterhouses, cutting plants, plants making canned meat, dry-cured sausages or meat products, dairies, milk processing units and units handling fish, eggs and honey operate under the sanitary-veterinary operating authorisation. The agency issues it after an on-site inspection against a checklist. Plants that export are authorised by the agency’s head office.
The same document is required for warehouses of products of animal origin, packing centres and the vehicles that carry food; for vehicles it is valid for three years. Unidentified animals may not leave the farm, so a slaughterhouse takes only animals entered in the State Register of Animals. The rules for livestock farmers are on the page about agriculture, viticulture and forestry.
Bakery and other foods
The list of activities that must register is approved by ANSA Order No. 612/2024 and covers almost all plant-based production: bread and pastry, biscuits and sweets, pasta and dumplings, sugar, canned goods, juices, oil, flour, coffee, tea, spices, bottled water and soft drinks. It has a separate section for small producers who make bread, cakes, canned goods, juices, cold-pressed oil, dairy or meat products in small quantities.
You apply for the certificate with the title deed or lease for the premises. The agency examines the application within five working days, may carry out an unannounced inspection and issues the certificate within 15 working days at most. Any change to the details in the application must be reported within ten working days.
For small low-risk producers, the Government is preparing to replace this certificate with a simple notification. What the October 2026 ANSA package proposes and where it stands is explained in our article on small local food producers and the new ANSA rules.
Once running, the plant keeps product safety under control along the whole production line, following HACCP principles adapted to the type, capacity and specifics of the unit. Results are kept for a year after the use-by date or the end of the shelf life. Every batch leaves with the producer’s quality certificate, and raw materials are accepted only with the supplier’s certificates. Staff who handle food have a medical check when hired and then at regular intervals, and receive hygiene training.
Wine
Winemaking has code 11.02 and belongs to industry, not agriculture. The vineyard itself, with its entry in the register, the permitted varieties and the harvest declaration, is covered on the page about agriculture, viticulture and forestry.
The Vine and Wine Register has two parts: the register of vineyards and the register of wine units. Any company that makes, processes, bottles, stores or sells wine wholesale is entered in the second. Entry is made on the basis of an application and a declaration on the company’s own responsibility, is free, and the National Office of Vine and Wine sends the number within ten days.
A wine unit keeps registers of goods in and out, oenological practices, bottling and grapes received, fills them in no later than three working days after each operation and keeps them for five years. Small producers in the same locality may keep their records on the back of their declarations. Every year it files the production declaration by 15 January and the declaration of stocks held on 31 July by 15 August. Wine for consumption leaves with a certificate of conformity or a declaration of conformity based on an accredited laboratory’s analysis. For export, ANSA issues on request the quality and safety documents that the destination country or the contract requires.
Wine pays no excise. Instead, the producer pays a contribution to the Vine and Wine Fund of 0.1 lei per litre sold, declared to the State Tax Service quarterly, by the 25th of the following month. Residents of free economic zones count as wine producers in the same way and pay the contribution like everyone else.
Beer and spirits
The manufacturing licence is applied for with the documents for the premises and equipment and a forecast of the product range for the current year. The conditions are production capacity, owned or in use, and daily computerised records of raw materials and output. Ethyl alcohol and spirits of at least 25% also need metrologically verified measuring instruments and registered, sealed equipment. Beer is exempt from the measuring instruments and seals.
Equipment for alcohol and spirits of 25% and over runs only with instruments that measure quantity and strength, with fiscal memory, and cannot be started without the seals fitted jointly by the State Tax Service, ANSA and the metrology body. The producer sells wholesale only to companies with a licence and specialised warehouses. Spirits of 25% and over are sold in bottles with closures that cannot be refilled without leaving a trace, except for rachiu made from distillates, brandy, whisky, rum, some liqueurs and containers of up to 0.25 litres.
The licence fee is paid on issue and then every year from the date of issue, and each branch carrying out licensed activity pays the fee for a copy of the licence. New companies do not get the 50% discount that other licensed activities receive.
Tobacco
The tobacco licence is issued for five years. The factory must have production facilities covering the full production cycle, quality-control equipment and instruments, ventilated warehouses with computerised records, and qualified specialists. Together with the licence, the manufacturing equipment is entered in the State Register of Tobacco Product Manufacturing Equipment. Pregnant women and people under 18 may not work in tobacco processing or in making tobacco products.
Cigarettes made under licence for a foreign brand are made from the blend imported from the brand owner, if the owner does not allow the blend to be prepared in Moldova. The pack leaves the factory with the excise stamp stuck directly on it, under the film, so that it tears when the pack is opened.
Excise
A brewery, spirits plant or tobacco factory obtains the excise certificate from the State Tax Service before starting production and becomes an authorised warehousekeeper. Excise becomes due when the goods leave the tax warehouse, not when they are made. In 2026 the rates are 3.05 lei per litre of beer, 17.37 lei per litre of vermouth and other fermented drinks, 2 lei per litre of apple and pear cider and 132.27 lei per litre of pure alcohol for distillates and spirits. Grape wine is not on the list.
For a plant, the usual form is an SRL, which pays 12% income tax and whose liability is limited to the company’s own assets. Applications for a licence, the ANSA certificate or the sanitary-veterinary authorisation come with the title deed or lease for the premises, and the ANSA document runs for the term of the lease.
We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the articles of association, the filing with the Public Services Agency and the opening of the bank account. We prepare the applications to ANSA, to the Vine and Wine Register and for the licence, and the export paperwork, and for a foreign company we register a Moldovan company or a free economic zone resident. We can take over the accounting, including excise returns and Vine and Wine Fund contributions, from the first month. What each service includes is on the corporate services page.
