By 2018 all incorporated wineries owning vineyards will be required to become enlisted in the Vine and Wine Register, announced Gheorghe Arpentin, director of the National Vine and Wine Office, at a meeting dedicated to the 2017 grape harvest.

Arpentin said the Register will help to improve the quality of grapes and wine and enhance their competitiveness on the domestic and foreign markets.

According to him, in the first six months of this year Moldovan wine exports increased by 9% in terms of volume and by 16 percent in monetary terms from the similar period last year.

“We export more and at a higher price. But we also aim to change the proportions of the wines exported in bulk and in bottles. Today the ratio is 75 to 25. The goal is to make it 50/50”, said Arpentin.

To make this happen, Arpenin argues that buyers need to know where the wine was produced, from what grape variety, and other details along the entire cycle. “Traceabily is key to conquering markets” , he said.

The biggest buyer of Moldovan wines is Poland, with 19 percent, followed, in no particular order, by the Czech Republic, Russia, China, Ukraine, Canada and Kazakhstan.

Registration with the Vine and Wine Register started in 2016. The Register has been developed as part of the project financed by the Czech Development Agency and USAID.