Moldova’s emblem, the wine, plays a less significant role in the national economy than earlier, said economic analyst Veaceslav Ioniță. In 2001-2005, the wines represented 26% of all Moldova’s exports. Each fourth gained dollar came from wine exports. After the first ban imposed by the Russian Federation, the share of wines in 2006-2007 decreased to 10% of all the exports. Currently, it is of only 5%. The share of wine exports in Moldova’s total exports decreased five times,” the expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” stated in the program “Economic Analyses with Veaceslav Ioniță”, IPN reports.
The wined industry in Moldova until 2005 developed primarily due to the great demand for wine in the Russian Federation. 80% of Moldova’s wines went to Russia. Since 2014 until present, the exports of Moldovan wine to Russia have oscillated around 10 million or 8% of all the exports.
The collapse as a result of the imposition of the first ban would have been much greater if Romania hadn’t lent a hand. In 2006, Romania increased the consumption of Moldovan wine for 15 times to US$24 million. Also, Ukraine in 2006 bought wines totaling US$31 million, which was twice more than it imported traditionally.
In 2005, the Republic of Moldova held a share of 1.28% of the global wine market, ranking 12th. In 2019, it dropped to the 18th place with 0.37%. Currently, Moldova exports wine to Belarus (21% of Moldova’s wine exports), Romania (12%), Russia (11.8%), the Czech Republic (8.5%), Poland (7.8%), China (7.1%), Georgia (5.3%), Ukraine (4.6%) and other states. “The Republic of Moldova has to work a lot to recover its global position and to enter the segment of appropriate prices per litter of wine,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.
Gheorghe Nicolaescu, dean of the Faculty of Horticulture of the State Agrarian University of Moldova, has told IPN that among the causes of the problems faced in the wine industry are: quality of staff involved in production, business entities’ attitude to vineyards, climate change, planting of vine on unsuitable land, shortage of qualified workers. The restrictions on particular foreign markets are imposed because of the political games.
