Winegrowers anticipate table grape prices will be by 40% higher

Winegrowers predict that the prices of table grapes this year will grow by 40% as the vineyards were seriously affected by this winter’s severe frost, Info-Prim Neo reports. The table grapes were the worst hit. In a meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the head of the Cojusna-based company “Agrodor CV” Vasile Botan said the grapes “Moldova” this autumn may cost 12-13 lei per kilogram, as against 7 lei last year. The prices of some technical sorts of grapes will rise to 3-3.50 lei per kilogram. “I think the wine will be also dearer,” he stated. Producer Eugeniu Pascani, who runs a peasant farmstead in Geamana, Anenii Noi, said that 70% of the buds got frozen. “This year the harvest will be poorer and we will have to increase prices. Last year, the crop was good and the prices were rather high,” he said. Tudor Cazacu, deputy head of the Scientific-Practical Institute of Horticulture and Food Technology, said that the grapes in southern Moldova were seriously affected. “The districts of Stefan Voda and Causeni in parts were 100% affected. In Ungheni and near Chisinau, the losses are not significant,” he stated. Valeriu Cebotari, division head at the Agriculture Ministry, said the institution aims to restructure the winemaking and winegrowing sector, to improve the legal basis and to encourage the re-equipment of the companies working in the field. “The low temperatures affected the vineyards and the grape harvest is expected to be by 10-15% lower,” he said. The grape harvest in 2011 was almost 600,000 tonnes.