MOLDOVA TOUGHENS WINE QUALITY CONTROL, MINISTER MAINTAINS…
30.07.2010
Moldovan authorities have taken measures to toughen control over the quality of wines intended for exports, first and foremost to the Russian Federation, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Valeriu Cosarciuc stated to the press after a Government meeting on Wednesday evening.
To this effect, Cosarciuc issued a special Order that has comprised the decisions and agreements that had been achieved during previous thorough negotiations and consultations with local winemaking and exporting companies.
“They certainly realize the need for taking efficient measures to improve wine quality control, if only it was not for one essential circumstance: additional checks and analyses of our wines are showing that in an absolute majority of instances the wine fully met all technical requirements”, said the Moldovan minister.
With all that, he reminded a fundamental rule: – buyer is always right, “so Moldovan wine companies exporting to Russia, where serious claims to wine quality have appeared recently, must strictly observe Russian market requirements”.
Cosarciuc said that the list of changes and improvements concerning wine quality, carried out in accordance with the requirements of RosPotrebNadzor [Russian federal supervisory agency for consumer goods quality], has already been sent to the Russian side through the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow.
“I am sure that after negotiations on July 30 our wine business interrelations with Russia will be restored, and will enter a new development phase”, said minister Valeriu Cosarciuc.
His ministry says that in 1H2010 Moldova exported US$35.9 million worth of wines to the Russian market – up 57% against an equivalent period of last year.
Lately, RosPotrebNadzor has halted over 960 thousand liters of Moldovan wines, and is preparing to send them back home under the pretext of their containing dibutylphthalate and other bad substances. RosPotrebNadzor Director Gennady Onishenko has given the Moldovan side 2 weeks to correct things, otherwise he promised Russia would bar wine imports from Moldova from August 1.
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