OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2008. Alleviation of grape export conditions and provision of means from the State Budget to subsidize the crediting of winemaking enterprises will help overcome the crisis in the sector, presumes the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova.

Its Deputy Chairman Mihai Godea stated during a news conference in Infotag that the entire blame for the critical situation is on the Communist Government that has put obstacles to grape exports.

Godea showed journalists a letter the "Moldova-Vin" Agri-Industrial Agency had sent to the Customs Service recently. The letter said the Customs Service must permit exporting grapes only if exporters have registered their contracts with Moldova-Vin and only if foreign importers buy Moldovan grapes for minimum 4 lei a kilo of white sorts and 5 lei/kilo of red varieties. Moreover, Moldova-Vin even indicated concrete border-crossing stations through which the grape exports may only be permitted.

Another LDPM Deputy Chairman Ion Balan, the owner of the Podgoreni grape-growing company, stated at the news conference that such restrictions are making grape exports practically impossible.

"No buyer can afford paying such reckless prices. Real prices are much lower. Moldovan grape producers have found themselves in a situation when they do not know what they should do with their grapes. Moldovan wineries are still working on the last year’s wine materials, for they had long been unable to exports their wines due to the memorable Russian embargo. Besides, the wineries don’t certainly feel like paying high prices. As for foreign buyers, we are unable to find anybody who would agree to the prices being imposed on us by Moldova-Vin", stated the viticulturist.

Balan also maintained that due to the very cold and rainy weather of last week, the plantations have been struck with mildew. So, if the grapes fail to be picked and sold within maximum two weeks, the harvest will be lost.

Mihai Godea stated that in such emergency conditions all the Moldova-Vin barriers to exports must be immediately removed, and the Government ought to provide 100 million lei in credits to wineries to let them purchase grapes.

The LDPM leadership maintains that nobody but the Government is responsible for the situation Moldovan grape-growers and winemakers are now in, therefore nobody but the Government must take proper measures to normalize the situation in the grape/wine sector – the backbone of the Moldovan national economy.