OREANDA-NEWS. February 10, 2012. The Russian federal sanitary service Rospotrebnadzor has announced that since December 2011 the quality of the Moldovan alcoholic beverages shipped to the Russian market has stabilized, according to a press release of the Russian service for the protection of consumer rights.

Although an overall improvement of the Moldovan wines' quality has been ascertained, Rospotrebnadzor noted that several consignments of Moldovan alcoholic beverages produced by Romanesti joint stock company and imported by the Basvinol company did not meet the hygienic norms.

The Russian federal sanitary service also announced its intention to further check the observance of the requirements to the Moldova wine production shipped within the "single desk" regime.

The export of Moldovan wines to the Russian Federation dropped by 43 per cent in 2011, Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar has previously said. The decrease in exports was triggered by the introduction of some amendments to the procedure of obtaining and extending the licences for the import of wine production in Russia. Thus, the local producers favoured other sales markets.

The head of the Russian Rospotrebnadzor service for the protection of consumer rights, Gennadiy Onishcheno, said in early 2012 that Russia intends to facilitate the import procedure for Moldovan wines.

In eleven months of 2011, Moldova shipped over 24.4 litres of alcoholic beverages to the Russian market, according to data put out by Rospotrebnadzor federal sanitary service.