Moldovan wines' quality - higher - Russian sanitary service

Moldovan wines shipped to the Russian market have become much better, after «the shake» that happened, the head of the Russian Rospotrebnadzor service for the protection of consumer rights, Gennadiy Onishchenko, said.

He said «Moldova does not refit the production and lives with old baggage as regards the production capacity and grapes' growing», according to interfax.ru.

Onishchenko headed the Russian delegation participating in a meeting of the Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission held in Chisinau on 16 November. He noted that during the meeting, the sides positively appreciated the cooperation between the experts of the two countries regarding the simplification of the Moldovan wines' access to the Russian market and opening new customs terminals for supply of Moldovan alcoholic beverages.

Yet, Onishchenko reproached the Moldovan authorities that they did not want to inform thoroughly the Russian experts participants in the meeting of the intergovernmental commission about the national quality control over the wine production. Moreover, any meeting with representatives of the business environment was not organized, he said.

Russia set an embargo on the Moldovan wines' imports in March 2006, for reasons that they do not meet the quality standards. In 2005, the Moldovan alcoholic beverages' exports to Russia have reached a high record of 234.92 million dollars. In 2011, the wines' supplies were estimated at 47.90 million dollars.

Adapted from Moldpres