OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2013. The Minsk authorities have adopted a decision prohibiting the re-export of Moldovan wines via Belarus to the Russian market.

At the same time, the control over the circulation of the Moldovan alcoholic beverages was enhanced, including at the border with Russia. The legal entities selling the Moldovan alcoholic beverages in Belarus will be obliged to put down in the accompanying documents that the delivery of these goods to the Russian market is forbidden.

Also, samples of Moldovan wines will be collected in order to confirm their conformity with the standards in force in Belarus and the Customs Union.

Belarus is the second largest market of Moldovan alcoholic beverages, according to its size, after Russia, with a quota of 21.9 per cent of the overall Moldovan wines exports in 2012, according to data by the National Statistics Bureau. The exports of wines and other alcoholic beverages to the Belarusian market went up to 46.04 million dollars in 2012.

Another member country of the Customs Union, Kazakhstan, had a share of 9.3 per cent of the Moldovan alcoholic beverages exports.

Some experts do not exclude that after Russia had banned the imports, the Customs Union’s countries would act in a concerted way.

The exports of Moldovan wine to the Russian market were fully stopped, according to a 10 September decision by the head of the Rospotrebnadzor Russian sanitary service, Gennady Onishchenko. “I took the decision on suspending the Moldovan wine’s import in Russia”, he said. Onishchenko added that the prohibition would be in force unless Russia makes sure that “Moldova undertakes actions for the systemic settlement of the problem” of goods quality.

The wine quality checking system will be radically changed, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar said after the cabinet meeting. Lazar underlined that, because of the difficult situation emerged for the Moldovan wines on the Russian market, consultations and talks will be held within the Moldovan-Russian joint commission.

The government approved the decision on the creation of a National Vine and Wine Office and the Regulation on Vine and Wine Fund. The new office will be a public institution under the Agriculture and Food Ministry and will have the task to enforce the state policies in the wine-making and wine-growing sectors, producing and selling of wines on the home and foreign markets. Rospotrebnadzor insists on the introduction of a state control over the wine quality.

In March 2006, when Russia imposed an embargo on the imports of Moldovan wines for reasons that they allegedly did not meet the quality and safety standards, this country was not followed by other Commonwealth of Independent States members.