OREANDA-NEWS. February 28, 2008. Moldova does not have a wine consumption culture, says Arcadie Andronic, the director of Poliproject Exhibitions Ltd, the organizer of "ExpoVin Moldova 2008".

Andronic said that only 5 million bottles of wine are consumed in Moldova, as against 70 million bottles of vodka, and this is not normal for a country that produces wine. According to him, the wine makers are to blame for this because they do not know how to promote their products on the home market, not to mention the foreign ones.

The Moldovan wine producers should aim at different markets, but they continue to export to Russia, though it is obvious that it would be impossible to export 200 million bottles to this market as earlier. Yet, after lifting the ban on wine imports, Russia wants cheap wine from Moldova and this is humiliating for the producers because they made considerable effort to improve the quality of the wines, Andronic said.

Moreover, the Russians now have different tastes and the producers should study the consumer preferences.

Andronic said that ExpoVin Moldova reflects the situation on the internal wine market and the organisers aim to offer the national and foreign visitors the possibility of discovering the flavour of the Moldovan wine.

The seventeenth International Specialised Exhibition "ExpoVin Moldova 2008" and the Scientific-Practical Conference "InWine'2008" opened at the International Exhibitions Centre "Moldexpo" on February 20. As many as 168 producers, dealers, official distributors from Moldova, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, Portugal, France, Germany, Ukraine, Japan and other countries are taking part in the exhibit.

Wines, alcoholic drinks, equipment for winemaking, packing and accessories, vine saplings are displayed at the exhibit.

Taking part in the exhibition every year, many national companies gained possibilities of modernising the technological processes and of enhancing the competitiveness of their products, the organisers say.

ExpoVin Moldova is organised by Poliproject Exhibitions Ltd. The official partner is the Agroindustrial Agency "Moldova-Vin".