The Council of Europe Development Bank will provide €75 million to Moldova for implementing the wine industry revitalization program. The agreement is set to be signed on November 18, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Valeriu Cosarciuc said in a news conference. “It is a broad program aimed at improving the education and research spheres, the work of winemaking and winegrowing companies, and of all the companies that are responsible for ensuring the quality, safety and authenticity of the wine products,” the minister said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “Representatives of the Bank said it would be a model project for them.” According to the minister, the elimination of barriers to export and creation of a favorable business and investment environment in agriculture have been the main concerns of the Agriculture Ministry this year. The state trade mark put on exported products was removed and the economic entities were exempted from paying about 30 million lei a year. The restriction on the export of wine distillates and non-bottled cognac was lifted. As a result, the value of exports rose by US$2.5 million. The procedures for certifying technical sorts of grapes have been simplified. “We aim to obtain a doubling in the quota on duty-free export of wine to the EU. Recently, we received a letter from the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos, which confirms that we will be able to export 2 million decaliters of wine in 2012, as against 1 million decaliters this year. We will have to follow the related procedures imposed by the European Commission, but I think we will manage to,” Valeriu Cosarciuc said. He also said the steps taken to develop a wine consumption culture on the home market by replacing the imported strong alcoholic drinks and beer with wine. “Wine exports in the first half of this year rose by 45% compared with the same period last year. Despite the problems experienced when selling wine to Russia in August-September this year, the exports were larger than in 2009. We worked to diversify the markets by staging wide promotion campaigns in Estonia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Belarus, and the Czech Republic,” the minister stated.