Government seeks to remove obstacles to grape exports

The Government is willing to remove all bureaucratic obstacles which are currently obstructing the grape export industry, even if it were to the detriment of wine factories. Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev stated during the recent meeting of the Commission for Emergencies, that he will not tolerate the discrimination of farmers, providers of grape, making reference to 12 wine enterprises which failed to pay for the stock purchased last year. The prime minister says that the list of indebted agricultural producers contains prosperous enterprises “which are also involved in sponsorship campaigns”. In this context the prime minister requested all the relevant authorities to avoid establishing fixed prices for the production of grapes. According to Tarlev, a minimal price can be established, taking into account the cost price, but not a maximal one which should be established by the market. Tarlev mentioned that grapes exports must be “undertaken with pleasure”, especially if prices prove to be more beneficial than those on the internal market. The head of the Agroindustrial Agency “Moldova-Vin”, Valeriu Mironescu stated that from the start of last week, there were no commercial stamps released for 22 wine producing companies, as they failed to pay for the grapes purchased last year. The debts of the wine factories amounted to approximately 28 million lei. As a result of restrictions imposed by the Agency, 10 enterprises settled their debts owed to their providers, transferring a sum of 3.9 million lei. The remaining enterprises will have to draw up calendars which will indicate the payment schedule of debts for all agricultural producers, Mironescu added. According to data provided by “Moldova-Vin”, so far, the average crop of grapes per hectare is of 4.5 tons, compared to 3.5 tons last year. So far, 21.5 thousand tons of grapes were collected, of which 15.7 thousand are table grapes. The price of these grapes differs from 10 to 22 lei per kilogram, depending on the variety/category of grapes. The technical types of grapes are sold for 4.2 lei/kg.