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Moldova Searches for Alternative Markets in the West for its Wine

December 12, 2005
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By Vlad Spânu

Chisinau, December 12, 2005 (Moldova.org) -- On December 9-11, the Moldovan Wine Festival was held in the capital of Romania, Bucharest. It is part of a larger campaign of Moldova aimed at promoting Moldovan wines on the Western market.

“We came here to conquer [Romania] with our wines”, said Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin at the opening of the festival. His Romanian counterpart, Traian Basescu, who also participated at the festival, replied that "We allow you to do that with pleasure. This would probably be the only conqueror that we will receive with joy - the Moldovan wines".

The Moldovan Wine Festival in Bucharest was organized by the "Moldova-Vin" wine state agency, Moldova's Export Promotion Organization, assisted by both Chambers of Commerce from Romania and Moldova, Bucharest City Hall and the Moldovan embassy in Romania. The festival brought together some 40 Moldovan wineries, including the most known: Mileştii Mici, Cricova, Barza Albă, Vinuri Ialoveni, Aroma, Vinăria Purcari, Cimişlia, Acorex Wine Holding, Romaneşti, Lion-Gri, Tomai-Vinex. They offered a variety of red and white dry wines, dessert wines, sparkling wines and brandies.

Wine represents the major product of Moldova's economy, with exports in a good year accounting for up to half of the country's total export earnings. This small country (of 4.5 million inhabitants and it is roughly the size of Holland) is placed the 7th among the top world wine exporters. Wine's share in Moldova's GDP is some 25 per cent.

Currently, Russia is the main market for Moldova’s wines -- some 90 percent of Moldova-made wines and brandies are exported to Russia -- and Moldova consumes only 5 percent of its produced wine. In 2005, the wine and brandy exports to Russia valued about 228 million U.S. dollars, a 13 per cent increase from 2004. But things might change after Russian customs stopped to issue excise duty stamps to Moldovan wineries this fall and after Russia’s ban of agricultural products imported from Moldova in the spring of 2005. In fact, the Russian government's trade policy against Moldova affected Russian businesses that own many Moldovan wineries. It affects Russian consumers as well since they prefer Moldovan wine thanks to its high quality and relatively low price. It has a potential to affect Russia’s accession process to the WTO if Moscow continues its aggressive raise of non-tariff barriers for imports from Moldova that is a WTO member since 2002.

There are 150 wineries in Moldova with an annual production of 3-4 million hectoliters from 170,000 hectares of vineyards. Moldova has great potential for wine production. 10% of country's land is covered by vineyards located mostly in the central and southern regions.

Still the wine industry needs substantial financing to recover from Gorbaciov's anti-alcohol campaigns run between 1985 and 1991, and from the general underinvestment characterizing the industry since then. Investment in the industry is likely to increase once the ban on the free sale of land is lifted, as vintners insist on controlling vineyards as well as wineries.

Moldovans produce European vines such as: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, Muscat, as well as Moldovan varieties: Feteasca, Rara Neagra, Moldova, etc.

Moldova Foundation

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