Romanian wines could be successfully exported to third-party markets, where they are promoted through a programme financed with EU funds, the Minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin said at a wine tasting event on the margin of the 29th European Regional Conference (ERC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Photo credit (c): Mihai POZIUMSCHI / AGERPRES Photo
‘We have a promotion programme for the Romanian wines, financed from European funds and from the state budget, especially on third party markets. Thus we have promoted wines in Thailand, China, Switzerland, and Russia, too, I think, that is on third-party markets, where trading in other products than wine has grown by 75 percent last year, and there is an even higher growth potential,’ Constantin said.
He asserted that the quality of Romanian wines has grown significantly; actually, if Romanian wine growing and especially the wines were known during the 1960s and 1970s for their quantities, as Romania was exporting massively, especially to the Russian market, over the recent years, since 1998-2000, the producers began to improve quality, too.
The waiver of the quota of tax-exempt wine exports from the Republic of Moldova on the European Union market gave a positive signal to producers, but the way they promote themselves is entirely up to them, the Moldovan Minister of Agriculture Vasile Bumacov declared on the same occasion.
‘The important thing was that positive signal saying that we no longer have a quota. (…) This friendly gesture untied the hands of wine growers of the Republic of Moldova. Now it is mostly up to them how they manage to promote themselves. We carried out the reform of the wine growing sector of the Republic of Moldova; we have created the National Office of Vineyard and Wine. We wished to terminate the state’s involvement in this specific field, allowing the sector to become more involved and to trust what it does,’ Bumacov commented on the partnership with the EU.
The Republic of Moldova win exports bring approximately 200 million dollars annually for 80 percent of its domestic production. Most exports, i.e. circa 60 percent, go to the Eastern markets; 15 percent is sent to the West, and the remaining volume to other countries like China, the United State, Japan etc.
Bumacov added that his country hopes to reduce its dependence on the Eastern market.AGERPRES
