New digital solutions for the wine industry were considered at the first edition of the Wine&Tech forum held in Chisinau. Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea said that without digitization and advanced technological processes, Moldova’s agriculture will be unable to cope with the stiff regional and global competition. Technologies and digitization in agriculture mean cheapening of production process and facilitation of sale, IPN reports.
The participants in the event were able to see examples of good practices in the adoption of digital technologies in the wine industry, to learn about the latest digital and technological tendencies in the field. Vladimir Bolea noted that after these practices are presented, swift analyzing and implementation of digitization examples will follow.
U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Kent D. Logsdon said that Moldova’s wine sector over the past decade has witnessed a revolution. The export of bottled wine was replaced with export of wine in bulk. Rebranding was applied and export markets were diversified. The Wine&Tech platform can lead a new revolution in the sector. The forum will act as a bridge between supply and demand of digital technologies adjusted to the needs of Moldova’s wine industry. With the help of local talents from the IT sector and from creative industries, the wine industry can further promote innovation, digital technologies and electronic trade.
Elizaveta Breahnă, acting director of the National Office of Vine and Wine, noted that digitalization and all the new technologies are important. When there is a shortage of labor force, a sustainable plan for implementing technologies when growing grapes and making wines is necessary. Through the USAID project, demonstrative lots were set up at all the vineyards of Moldova. There were placed weather stations that daily record the temperature and soil moisture through software. Over the past two years, these technologies helped to prevent disease in vines and to formulate recommendations for optimizing treatment so as to incur fewer costs and to obtain natural products in the end.
A program of grants for promoting Moldova’s wine export was recently launched. This will offer a total budget of 13 million lei for Moldovan wine exporters to diversity export markets. The exporters can get up to 1 million lei in grant funding per company, depending on the category of business. It is estimated that about 20 wine companies will receive grant funding through the agency of this program.
