Moldovan table grapes are not on high demand on foreign markets

Moldovan farmers’ table grapes are not on high demand on the international market. Tatiana Vasilita, specialist of the National Agriculturalists Federation of Moldova AGROinform, has said during a conference this week that Moldova risks to lose its 18th position in the world grape producers’ ranking, since it’s not producing high-demand grape varieties, Info-Prim Neo reports. Gheorge Nicolaescu, head of the Viticulture Chair of the Agrarian State University of Moldova, mentioned that although the range of cultivated grape types is a large one, there is little interest from foreign buyers. Officially there are 69 table grape types that are being grown in Moldova. Overall, Moldova produces 90,000 tonnes of table grapes yearly. 78% of this production is sold on the local market, and only 23% is exported. The main problem on the local market is the grape quality: 1/5th of the internal table grape production is used for making wine, as it’s not good enough to be considered edible. Moldova’s total grape production, including wine varieties, reaches 600.000 tonnes, an amount which has decreased by 2% over the last couple of years.