How big the market is
For 2025, 7,267 enterprises in division 46 filed financial statements, with 46,439 employees and sales revenue of 181,485 million lei. Of these, 6,393 have fewer than ten employees: most distribution companies are micro-enterprises.
The average gross salary in wholesale trade was 16,025.9 lei in the fourth quarter of 2025, close to the economy-wide average of 16,355.1 lei and above the 13,348.5 lei in retail. Headcount grew by 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with the same quarter of 2024, but fell in 2026: by 0.3% in the first quarter and by 1.1% in the second, compared with the same quarters a year earlier. Over the same quarters, retail and the motor trade employed more people than a year before. For a new distribution company, this means planning the payroll at the economy-wide average, not at shop wages.
What permits you need
Wholesale trade is not licensed, with a few specific exceptions. Importing and wholesaling alcohol and beer requires a licence from the Public Services Agency, and so does importing and wholesaling tobacco products. Medicines have their own wholesale distribution authorisation, described on the page on pharmaceutical manufacturing and medical devices, and petroleum products have their own licence.
Every other distribution company starts with the trade notification. The whole of division 46, including intermediation, is on the list of trade activities. You file the notification with the town hall of the locality where the warehouse is, not where the company is registered, and you file one for each unit: two warehouses mean two notifications. On the form you give the four-digit activity code and, where it applies, the declaration that you sell alcohol, beer or tobacco.
The law sets no minimum share capital for distribution, not even for the alcohol or tobacco licence. What it does set are requirements for the premises: a warehouse suited to the goods, with computerised records.
What the law requires of a warehouse
The internal trade law has an article on wholesale trade, and its conditions apply to every distributor. The warehouse must have storage rooms sized and equipped for the volume and nature of the goods, and for food it has refrigeration where needed. The company keeps computerised stock records, uses scales and other measuring instruments with metrological verification, and follows the rules on which goods may be stored and displayed next to each other. There is no separate wholesale regulation: the trade rules the Government approved in 2023 repeat these requirements in a short chapter.
On the notification you choose the type of unit from the nomenclature of commercial units. Wholesale has two. The warehouse, also called a wholesale base, is the unit where the goods sold wholesale are kept, and any retail or online sales you make from it do not change the type of unit. The distribution centre, or hub, has more than 1,000 m² and receives, sorts, packs and prepares goods for delivery, including with its own vehicle fleet. Storage for others, as a service, is covered on the page on warehousing, logistics, courier services and customs.
Cash and carry
Cash and carry is the form the law provides for a warehouse where buyers come to collect the goods themselves. It combines wholesale with retail and has fixed rules: self-service, a range that cannot consist only of products of the same type, and customers registered in the unit’s database, who are given a non-transferable access card. Payment is in cash or by bank transfer, as the customer chooses, and the invoice is issued after the customer has been identified. The words ‘cash and carry’ must appear in the logo.
You need the same permits as for wholesale trade and no others. Cash takings go through the cash register: the warehouse is on the list of units that use one, and the list of exempt activities covers neither wholesale trade nor cash and carry.
Alcohol and beer
For alcohol, the specialised warehouse is the central condition. Packaged alcoholic drinks, whether made in Moldova or imported, are sold wholesale only through specialised warehouses of at least 500 m², and for beer the threshold is 200 m². You may own them or hold them under a right of use; until April 2023, an alcohol warehouse had to be owned. The warehouse must be covered and fenced, with computerised records and fire protection, and nothing but food products may be kept in it. You also need the authorisation of at least one producer to sell as its dealer, and the distribution contract.
The licence comes in two versions. A distributor of imported alcohol or beer pays 52,000 lei a year, and one that sells only alcohol or beer made in Moldova pays 26,000 lei a year. The licence does not expire, but the fee is paid every year. With it, the company enters the State Register of Alcohol Circulation and files circulation returns from its computerised records; a beer distributor does not enter the register.
Imports have rules of their own. Alcohol enters the country only through ten customs posts named in the law, including Leușeni, Giurgiulești and Otaci, with the quality and conformity certificates of the country of origin. The licence is shown at customs. Excise duty is paid on import, and the drinks carry an excise stamp applied before import; beer and drinks of up to 7% alcohol are not stamped. Shops buy imported alcohol only through or from specialised warehouses, so imported alcohol reaches the shelf only through specialised warehouses.
Wine has its own law. Wholesaling wine requires entry in the Vine and Wine Register, which is free, and specialised warehouses with computerised records, each with its own register of goods in and out. The importer is responsible for the quality of imported wine. Winemaking and the rules for wineries are covered on the page on the food industry, beverages and tobacco.
Tobacco and e-cigarettes
The tobacco licence covers importing and wholesaling tobacco products and related products, including e-cigarettes. It costs 26,000 lei a year and is valid for five years. Unlike alcohol, the law sets no minimum floor area: the wholesale warehouses may be owned or rented, but they must be ventilated and keep computerised records.
What you need to sort out in advance is the brand authorisation. For each brand you need the import and sales authorisation from the brand owner or its licensed manufacturer, and the brand is written into the licence. The producer applies the excise stamp directly to the pack, before import, and it must match the year of manufacture. The importer notifies the National Agency for Public Health of any new product 90 days before placing it on the market, and six months before for e-cigarettes and their refills.
Food
For a food warehouse, ANSA goes by the origin of the goods. Wholesale and storage of fruit, vegetables, drinks, sugar, confectionery and other food of non-animal origin are on the registration list, as is the import of these foods. You receive the food safety registration certificate, at 150 lei, and the agency answers within 15 working days at most.
Meat, dairy, eggs and fish need a different permit. A warehouse for food of animal origin and a unit that stores and sells imported products of animal origin need the sanitary-veterinary operating authorisation, also 150 lei, with tacit approval after 20 working days. Neither document expires if you own the premises; both last for the term of the lease if you rent them. Vehicles that carry food have their own authorisation, for three years.
A food producer that sells its own goods does not need this page: its rules are on the page on the food industry, beverages and tobacco.
Grain, seeds, feed and pesticides
Agricultural wholesale involves the largest number of small formalities. Storing and wholesaling grain and oilseeds is registered with ANSA, like any food of non-animal origin. A seed trader registers separately, on the agency’s register, for five years, if it has storage and sales premises equipped to keep the seeds’ quality. Imported seeds must come from varieties listed in the national catalogue or the common catalogue of the European Union.
Feed goes two ways: a wholesale feed warehouse needs a sanitary-veterinary authorisation, and a unit that sells feed for farm animals goes through sanitary-veterinary registration. Pesticides are kept only in warehouses fitted out for them, notified to ANSA at least 15 working days before trading starts and entered in the register of specialised warehouses for fertilisers and plant protection products. A company that imports plants or plant products that need a phytosanitary certificate goes on the Register of Professional Operators, and for export ANSA issues the phytosanitary certificate free of charge, within 14 days. The rules for farmers are on the page on agriculture, viticulture and forestry.
Imports
Before your first customs declaration, the Customs Service registers the company in the customs information system. You can lodge the declaration yourself or through a representative, for example a licensed customs broker. At customs you pay 20% VAT, calculated on the date of the declaration, and excise duty if the goods are excisable.
Since March 2026, the importer’s duties are set out in the Law on general product safety. You put the company’s name, trade name or brand and its postal and email addresses on the product, supply instructions and safety information in Romanian with it, and keep the technical documentation for ten years. A distributor buying from an importer checks these points before selling and, if the product turns out to be dangerous, informs the producer or importer and takes part in withdrawing it. A product without complete information in Romanian, or in Romanian and Russian, cannot be put on sale.
For exports, the non-preferential certificate of origin is issued by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The commercial agent and the distribution contract
The Civil Code deals separately with three ways of selling someone else’s goods. A commercial agent negotiates or concludes contracts in the principal’s name, and any payment linked to the number or value of the contracts is treated as commission. A commission agent concludes contracts in their own name but on someone else’s account. A distributor buys the goods from the supplier and resells them in its own name; an exclusive distribution contract makes it the only distributor in a territory or for a group of customers.
For an agent, a few Civil Code rules matter at signing. Commission is due on contracts concluded thanks to the agent’s efforts, including those with customers from the area or group of customers entrusted to the agent. A non-compete clause is valid only in writing, for a territory or a group of customers, and lasts no more than two years after termination. On termination, an agent who has substantially increased the principal’s sales may claim compensation.
How much it costs to open a distribution company
For most goods, the paperwork is cheap. The trade notification is 100 lei for each unit, and the ANSA papers are 150 lei each. An SRL is registered with no minimum share capital.
Licences change the calculation. The fee for alcohol and beer is 52,000 lei a year for imported goods and 26,000 lei for goods made in Moldova, and for tobacco it is 26,000 lei a year. The 50% discount that companies less than a year old receive does not apply to these licences.
The cost to plan for every year is the local tax on commercial units. A warehouse and a distribution centre are types of commercial unit, so they pay it, and the local council sets it by type of unit, floor area and what you sell. In Chișinău, the council’s tax table puts warehouses in the same row as shops, and the tax rises in floor-area bands, so a large warehouse pays far more than a small one. Read the council’s decision before you sign the lease.
An SRL is the usual form for distribution. Only the company’s assets are at risk, not your personal ones, and you can open a second warehouse without changing anything. Below the threshold of 1.7 million lei in sales over 12 months, a company that is not a VAT payer may apply the 4% tax on income. Above it you become a VAT payer and move to the general regime.
A sole trader has no access to the 4% regime, because the law expressly excludes it, and the owner is personally liable for its obligations with everything they own.
We choose the CAEM codes, draw up the articles of association, file the application with the Public Services Agency and open the bank account. On your behalf, we file the trade notification with the town hall, the registration or authorisation file with ANSA and the alcohol or tobacco licence application. For exporters we prepare certificates of origin and phytosanitary certificates, and for a foreign company that wants to distribute its goods in Moldova we register the SRL or the branch. We can take on the accounting from the first month, including VAT, excise duty and the local tax. What each service includes is set out on the corporate services page.
