Valeriu Mironescu: Rospotrebnodzor didn’t fulfil the task of unblocking wine exports

Technically, Rospotrebnodzor failed to fulfil the task of unblocking the exports of wine, as agreed by the presidents of Russia and Moldova, Valeriu Mironescu, head of the Moldova-Vin Agrindustrial Agency told a news conference today. In the context of the statement released Monday, August 27, through which Moldova-Vin announced it will no longer allow Rospotrebnadzor to carry out any other inspections, Mironescu said that after Rospotrebnadzor decides to cooperate constructively, openly and willingly “everything will go smooth”. In his words, Moldova-Vin has practically done its best to make the exports of Moldovan wines to the Russian market possible, including by allowing inspections, in an exclusive manner, at wine companies in Moldova. Valeriu Mironescu pointed out that so far Rospotrebnadzor hasn’t sent any official document concerning the results of the inspections or about the wineries selected for resuming exports, and that all the information he gets, like everybody else, comes from mass media. He says that the seven companies which were reported to have received the permission to resume their exports didn’t receive any official confirmation from Rospotrebnadzor either. Furthermore, he says that not even the criteria for selecting these companies have been made public. Mironescu was displeased that the Russian side has been treating Moldova-Vin as an administrative obstacle to resuming exports and has been looking for ways to avoid getting in touch with the wineries via the Agency. “We export wines to 54 countries, but neither of them expressed any objections as to the quality of the Moldova wines, therefore we are absolutely sure that the Moldovan production has a high quality and meets the highest world standards”, Mironescu said. He specified that Moldovan wines are being sold in Germany, the U.S., Israel, EU, China, Japan, where the quality standards are not lower than in Russia. According to him, exports to the EU have increased this year by more than 35 percent, despite a tough competition and the refined tastes of the EU consumers. The statement by Moldova-Vin forbidding Rospotrebnadzor from carrying out any other inspections at Moldovan wine companies came shortly after a similar statement made by President Vladimir Voronin for a Chisinau-based TV channel. Voronin stated that Rospotrebnadzor doesn’t go to France or Italy to inspect the quality of their wines, therefore Moldovan wineries shouldn’t be inspected either. Referring to the alleged infringements found by Rospotrebnadzor during the resent checks in Moldova, Voronin said all these infringements have been trumped-up. In the period August 8-13, a group of experts from Russia’s veterinary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor inspected 24 out of 173 wineries in Moldova. That was the second inspection by the Russian experts in the last couple of months.