Opposition parties criticize Govt. for bankrupting viticulture and winemaking

Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) and the Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM) accuse the government for purposefully bankrupting vine growers and wine makers and ask it to allocate money to credit the grape processors buying grapes from farmers, Info-Prim Neo reports. A PLDM leader, Mihai Godea, told a news conference on Friday that the Government's actions had caused a crisis in selling grapes. As a result of the barriers imposed on exporting grapes and bulk wine, the vine growers may lose all their harvest this year. “The Russian embargo on the Moldovan wines and the Government's ban on exporting bulk wine have made that most of the wines produced for the last three years remain stored at wineries, dramatically diminishing their profits. Over 70 processing companies are not ready to process the new grapes. These issues make it impossible to procure raw material and, consequently, the price of grapes is very low,” Mihai Godea specified. PLDM also harshly slams the actions undertaken by Moldova-Vin agency, accusing it of imposing restrictions in negotiating the export prices. “By imposing low export prices -- 4 lei/kg for white grapes and 5 lei/kg for red grapes -- , Moldova-Vin has blocked the grapes export, while the grapes are sold on the local market at 1-2.5 lei/kg,” he said. “Moldova-Vin contributes to destroy the viticulture by exaggerated fiscal pressure. The exporters and importers say they levied a 0.8-lei VAT tax per kg for white grapes and 1 leu for red grapes,” reads a communique issued by AMN. “The vine growers threat to protest nationally, if the rulers keep this attitude.” Moldova-Vin asks the grapes exporters to register their export contracts, establishing the customs points through which they can make the export, and it also requires the full payment when starting the shipment. An advisor with Moldova-Vin, Dumitru Bratco, told Info-Prim Neo earlier, that some 30-50 thousand tonnes of grapes would be exported to Ukraine and Romania, this year. The price should be at least 3 lei/kg for white grapes and at least 4 lei – for red grapes. Over 150,000 people work in the viticulture sector in Moldova.