In 2018 Moldova saw one of its best grape harvest in the past decade, making it the 19th world leading wine producer, with 1.9 million hectoliters of wine. The information was presented by the National Wine and Vine Office at the sector’s Second National Annual Conference.
In 2018, 1.77 million liters of wine were sold on the domestic market for a total of 159 million lei. Wines from protected geographical indications accounted for 13% of volume and 26% of value on the domestic market. Wine has a share of 12% of all the alcoholic beverages consumed in Moldova.
Moldovan wine exports amounted to 2.886 billion lei. This represents 14% of the value created by the agrifood industry, 6% of the total exports of Moldova and 2% of the country’s GDP. The most important Moldovan wine importers in 2018 were Romania, China, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Canada, Belarus and the United States.
In 2018, investments into the sector amounted to 350 million lei, 184 million lei of which went to create vineyards, 82 million lei to modernize wineries, 30 million lei for market development, etc.
Moldova remains the country with the highest density of vineyards in the world. Wine varieties cover an area of over 74,000 hectares, including over 48,000 hectares with white varieties and almost 36,000 hectares for red varieties. There are 187 wineries registered in the Wine and Vine Register. They own 36% of the total area of vineyards, and each of them has an average of 220 hectares of vineyards.
