OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2008. By now, 340 thousand tons of grapes have been harvested in Moldova; more than 8 thousand tons from this amount were exported.

As it was informed in the press-service of Agro-industrial agency "Moldova-Vin", 1800 tons of grapes of technical grades have been exported to Ukraine.

In comparison with the previous year, the export of fresh grapes reduced because of the low prices offered by the purchasers, absence of necessary volumes and growth of proposals on behalf of the Ukrainian wine-growers.

Procurement prices for grapes, depending on grade and quality are as follows: white grades – 2-2,8 lei/kg, red grades – 2,4-3,5 lei/kg, Isabella grade – 1,2-1,8 lei/kg. Thus, it is noted that the export prices do not significantly exceed the internal ones.

By the data of "Moldova-Vin", the total area of vineyards in the country makes 158,6 thousand ha, including fruit-bearing – 141,8 thousand ha.

Within the frameworks of the Program of restoration and development of wine growing and winemaking for 2002-2020, 25 thousand ha of new vineyards, 5 thousand of which– table grades, have been planted in Moldova.