OREANDA-NEWS. Moldovan Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, Vasile Bumacov has left for Moscow, to negotiate with federal authorities the resumption of Moldovan wine exports to the Russian market, the press service of the ministry has reported. Yet, the ministry did not unveil the program of the visit, but only noted that Vasile Bumacov will hold some meetings with representatives of important federal agencies, which are expected to come out with some decisions for the settlement of this problem.

Yesterday, Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca participated in a TV show broadcast by Moldova-1 public channel, where he expressed hope that “the minister will return with some good news, after the Russian and Moldovan experts have paid mutual visits and have tried to indentify solutions, in order to solve the exports problem.”

Last week, a delegation of the RosPotrebNadzor [Russian federal supervisory agency for consumer goods quality] visited Moldova in order to examine the national laboratories dealing with the control of the wine quality in the country and to consider the eventual resumption of the wine exports to the Russian Federation. Yet, upon returning to Moscow, the experts refrained from making any assessments and statements regarding their fact-finding visit paid to the state-run National Center for Quality Testing of Alcoholic Beverages.

As already reported by Infotag, on September 11, Russia imposed an import ban on Moldovan wines and spirits citing health concerns. Nevertheless, critics say that the wine embargo is designed to stop the ex-Soviet republic's EU aspirations. Until the introduction of this ban, Moldova was exporting to Russia 28% of its wines, which represents 3% of the value of its total exports. According to Moldovan Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, Vasile Bumacov, after losing the access to the Russian sales market, Moldova may incur damages of about USD 46-50 million.