The embargoes imposed by the Russian Federation on Moldovan wines in 2006 and 2013 led to a significant decrease in exports and to the partial bankruptcy of the sector, secretary of state of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry Andrian Digolean stated in a public debate hosted by IPN.
According to the official, the embargo imposed by the Russian Federation in 2006 on Moldovan wines had a devastating impact on the wine sector of the Republic of Moldova.
"In 2006, exports decreased by 63% compared to 2005. The losses were between US$300 million and US$500 million. From 2008 to 2013, Moldovan winemakers had endeavored to return to the Russian market. Russia sent missions that checked the quality of the wines and step by step our companies re-entered the Russian market, but it is true that this access was selective," said Andrian Digolean.
The secretary of state stressed that since 2006, the embargo demonstrated the need to diversify the markets for Moldovan wines.
"For any business, the most important thing is to have clear rules of the game. As long as there is no predictability, you cannot do business. During that period, many companies, around 25%, went bankrupt,” said the secretary of state of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry.
The second embargo on Moldovan wines was imposed by the Russian Federation in 2013, shortly before the initialing of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. Under these circumstances, the EU provided significant support to the Moldovan wine sector.
"On January 1, 2014, Brussels fully liberalized the export of Moldovan wines to the EU market. But the wine sector learned the first lessons 2013. The sector, producers become convinced that only by working, they can succeed under a common country brand. At that time, the National Office of Vine and Wine was created with the national country brand Wine of Moldova," said Andrian Digolean.
The public debate entitled "Bad side and good side of Russian embargoes" was held as part of the series of debates "Developing political culture through public debates". IPN Agency carries out this project with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.
