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Rospotrebnadzor may restrict import of Moldovan wines to Russia – Chief Federal Sanitary Inspector

“RosPotrebNadzor [Russian federal supervisory agency for consumer goods quality] does not rule out the possibility of fully restricting the import of Moldovan wines to the Russian Federation,” said Gennady Onishchenko, Head of RosPotrebNadzor and Russia's Chief Federal Sanitary Inspector at a news conference held in Moscow today.   

According to the Russian media, Gennady Onishchenko said that on Thursday, a large consignment of Moldovan wines was rejected by the federal inspectors, because the alcoholic beverages were kept in plastic bottles, which resulted in the occurrence of some impurities in the wine.

“Moldova is currently at a breaking point, as we may ban again the import of Moldovan wines to the Russian Federation and thus, repeat the Draconic cycle that started in 2006. We detected dibutyl-phthalate [a chemical substance that is used in making flexible plastics and is soluble in various organic solvents, e.g. in alcohol, ether and benzene] in Moldovan wines. Such elements shall not be present in alcoholic beverages, at all. Yet, Moldova did not create a national system for controlling the quality of production,” said Gennady Onischenko.

Russia's Chief Federal Sanitary Inspector described this situation as a "negative renaissance".

As already reported by Infotag, Moldovan Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said that “Chisinau is ready to meet all the requirements imposed by RosPotrebNadzor in order to further have the right to export alcoholic beverages to the Russian Federation.” On Thursday, he left for Moscow, where he is going to meet the leadership of the Russian federal supervisory agency for consumer goods quality, in order to discuss the settlement of the current export problems.

Adapted from Infotag