Winemakers demand de-Sovietizing thinking of managers

Our problem is not the quality of wines, but their price, Ion Vartosu, director of the company Dionysos – Mereni, said during a meeting of representatives of wine businesses with Premier Vlad Filat. Vartosu said that winegrowing in Moldova remained at the level of the 1970-1980s as most of the work is done by hand and the cost price is high, while those who manage the sector focus only on the regulation of the relations in the field, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We face many inspections. A lot of employees work only to prepare documents for the fiscal inspectorate, for the anticorruption center and other institutions. We are sick and tired of so many regulations. Romania's legislation covers six pages, while ours 30 pages,” he said. Vartosu also said that the criteria for certifying the wine products, including those that are exported to Russia, must be clear and set in concert with the relevant authorities. The company managers who spoke at the meeting said the charges levied by the certification authorities are high and the guidebooks and all kinds of stamps that they have to purchase are very expensive. This affects the price of the finish products, making them noncompetitive. They stressed that the national and foreign authorities create many barriers to the export of wine products. Feodosie Bors, director of Doina-Vin company, said most of the winemaking companies are unable to pay the loans taken from banks according to the fixed timetable. He and other participants in the meeting proposed identifying a solution so as to reschedule the loans that now total 1.3 billion lei. On the other hand, the wine stocks by the end of this year will be about 30 million decaliters, but the companies do not have where to export their products. Besides, they have debts to the wine growers. Dorin Dragutanu, the governor of the National Bank, said the banks have liquidity and would like to offer the 2.8 billion lei they deposited with the central bank at an interest rate of 2% to the winemakers at a higher rate of interest. But there must be presented viable and justified projects as the banks face great risks. Prime Minister Vlad Filat said a group of experts went recently to Moscow to discuss possibilities of removing the barriers to Moldovan exports, especially wine and other alcoholic drinks, with the Russian authorities. He stressed that the Government annulled the state marks on the export of wine products and the Parliament is to adopt the necessary amendments.