Grape yield will be poorer than last year

The grape harvest this year will be smaller than last year and of a poorer quality owing to the heavy rain, said Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Valeriu Cosarciuc, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. There will be gathered an estimated 325,000 tonnes of grapes. 260,000 tonnes of these will be processed by winemaking companies. A part of the grapes will be exported. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Customs Service are taking steps to eliminate all the barriers hindering export. According to Valeriu Cosarciuc, they agreed with the Ukrainian authorities to create a green corridor and offer the Ukrainian processing companies the possibility of buying grapes from Moldovan producers. Processing companies’ debts to grape growers has decreased since the start of this year to 60 million lei. The companies will be able to purchase the 260,000 tonnes of grapes from agricultural associations. About 13-14 million decaliters of wine will be produced from them. As to the exports of wine to Russia, the minister said that a group of Moldovan experts will travel to Moscow on August 11 to continue the talks with specialists of Russia’s food safety body Rospotrebnadzor and agree transparent principles for assessing the quality and safety of the wine products. The minister recommended the wine producers to identify new markets and implement the quality certification systems ISO – 2005 and ISO 22000, which guarantee the safety of the products. He said only 16 of the 30-35 wine companies that export products to Russia applied this system.