Moldova is forced to make wine from grapes that are not bought in the EU
Moldova was forced to process at least 40% of last year's harvest of table grapes into wine. This is the highest percentage of forced processing of table grapes in Moldova in the current decade.
This was reported by the EastFruit website with reference to data from the national food safety agency ANSA.
In April, wineries offer low prices for such raw materials, which does not cover the costs of winegrowers.
The situation is similar with apples. Moldovan canning factories processed 350 thousand tons of the 600 thousand tons of last year's harvest. At least three Moldovan canning factories periodically resumed work using apple stocks from refrigerators.
The high level of processing of fresh berries and fruits is due to the fact that the EU has set too low export quotas for these products for the country. The Government of Moldova approached the European Commission with a request to increase tariff quotas, but the decision was not made on time.
At the same time, Moldovan supplies to Russia also fell by 27%. The share of Moldovan table grapes on the Russian market decreased from 11% in 2017 to just over 9% in 2018.
“One of the main reasons for the reduction in supplies of grapes from Moldova to Russia was the increase in competition in this market from suppliers from Uzbekistan and India. Uzbekistan has generally surpassed Moldova in the ranking of table grape suppliers, displacing it from the top three. Supplies of table grapes from Uzbekistan to Russia in 2018 increased by 29%, and supplies from India by 15%. Thus, India has become the second largest supplier of table grapes to Russia after Turkey,” writes EastFruit.
Moldova is forced to make wine from grapes that the EU does not buy.