Yes, a small neighbourhood shop can buy meat wholesale. The only condition published on carne.md is a minimum order of 70 kg — no turnover threshold, no annual contract, no purchase history. If you sell 70 kilograms in a week, you already qualify. The rest is organisation.
Where to start if you have no meat section yet
A meat section stands on three legs, not one. Chilled brings people in daily, frozen holds your stock without risk, and semi-finished products sell themselves at lunchtime.
In our catalogue that means three zones: chilled chicken and chilled pork, frozen meat (chicken, pork, beef, turkey) and semi-finished products (coated, ready-to-cook lines). You do not need all three on day one, but you do need to know which cabinet is for which.
One note for anyone new to this market, including a foreign-owned retailer setting up in Moldova: carne.md is run by Melion-Prim SRL, official importer of Qualiko poultry from MHP. The producer holds BRCGS Food Safety certification for its processing site and a Halal certificate for its poultry; both are published as full-size scans on the about page and on the Qualiko product pages.
Which cuts sell best — and why we will not hand you a ranking
No ranking holds across neighbourhoods: a shop next to student housing sells differently from one beside a market. Any supplier promising a best-seller list without seeing your street is selling you a guess.
What can be said honestly: chicken has the widest range in our catalogue. Whole birds come chilled in two sizes — “Whole chicken Qualiko, chilled, 1.1 kg” and the same line at 2.0–2.3 kg. The parts are listed on their own: Qualiko thighs, wings and breast fillet (boneless, skinless). On pork, demand usually splits in two: Pork collar and Pork entrecôte for grilling, Minced pork and Diced pork (goulash cut) for everyday cooking.
The method that works: start with three or four lines per category, track each one for two or three weeks, and drop whatever did not move.
Packaging: what arrives in bulk and what goes straight to the shelf
This decides whether you need a wrapping machine and scales.
Some lines arrive as a bulk block and are portioned by you: Chicken leg quarters Qualiko, block-frozen (monolith), 10 kg, or Chicken legs Qualiko, dry-frozen (IQF), 14 kg. That box is raw material, not shelf-ready goods.
Others state the box structure in the product name itself: Chicken wings Qualiko, frozen, 10.8 kg (0.900×12) means twelve pieces of roughly 0.900 kg; Broiler chicken Qualiko, chilled, 13 kg (1.300×10) means ten birds of roughly 1.300 kg; Chicken thighs Qualiko, chilled, 7.2 kg (0.900×8) means eight units — already close to a selling unit.
Closest to the shelf sit the frozen Qualiko semi-finished lines — “Nuggets Homestyle Qualiko, frozen, 1 kg”, chicken popcorn in 1 kg and breaded chicken sticks in 500 g — plus, from our own dinProvincie brand, Mititei (beef and pork) and Sausages for grilling.
What we will not claim across the catalogue: whether every piece inside a box is individually wrapped. It varies by line, so confirm it with our sales desk before you order, not at delivery.
How to calculate your margin without fooling yourself
Prices are not published on the site: every item reads “Price on request”, confirmed line by line when you ask. But you can build the formula before you know the number.
The common mistake is calculating margin on the kilogram you bought. Real margin sits on the kilogram you sold. Between the two stand:
- butchery yield — if you break down a whole bird, part of the weight leaves as bone and trim;
- moisture loss on chilled product while it sits in the display case;
- whatever is left when shelf life ends, written off in full;
- delivery cost, if it applies to your order — confirmed when you place it.
Add up what the box cost you, divide by the kilograms that actually went through the till, and apply your markup only to that figure. Your own yield takes a week to learn: weigh what comes in, weigh what goes out, note the difference.
A trial order before any contract
A first order commits you to nothing. The 70 kg minimum still applies, but a sensible trial fits inside it: one fast-moving chilled line, one frozen line that sits safely in stock, and one semi-finished line for the ready-to-fry shelf. Whether your 70 kg can be built from several lines depends on the products — ask our sales desk.
Two weeks of that tells you how the goods arrive, how fast they sell, and how much you wrote off.
Chilled stock rotation, where the money is actually lost
Frozen forgives mistakes. Chilled does not. Four rules cover most of the losses:
- Check temperature on delivery, not just appearance. The cold chain breaks in transit, not in your display case.
- Strict FIFO: new stock goes to the back, always.
- Order chilled small and often, frozen large and rarely. Delivery frequency is agreed when you order, depending on your town.
- Never sell thawed product as chilled. That is a safety and legal matter.
How to order
Call +373 79 88 33 79, write to office@carne.md, or use the form on the order request page. We confirm price, stock and lead time — the site does not process online payments. The warehouse is at str. Valea Bicului 9, Chisinau, Monday to Friday 9:00–17:00 and Saturday 9:00–14:00. Delivery terms are on the delivery page, contacts on the contact page, and the full range is in the wholesale shop.