This year’s harvest of grapes for making wine is projected to be large. The winemakers say the grapes developed well even if the summer was rainier than last year. However, if the future period is rainy, the quality of grapes may be affected. The information was communicated to IPN by the chairman of the Association of Small Wine Producers of Moldova Ion Luca.

He said that this year the winemakers will collect a large quantity of grapes, but in parts the grapes were affected by hail and not all the producers will have good crops.

The table grapes for export started to be gathered last week. The table grapes yield this year is expected to total 100,000 tonnes, while the next two-three years will be twice larger as the winemakers planted more table sorts of grapes than technical ones over the last 6-8 years.

The Transnistrian winemakers are waiting for a record harvest this year. Earlier this week, they started to collect the early sorts of grapes. According to expert estimates, the crop of early sorts will be about 20 tonnes per hectare of vineyard. Last year the largest harvest was 15 tonnes per hectare.