Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin has signed a decree to resume wine exports to Russia, a Moldovan official reported.
Photo: Michail Galustov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russia Hopes to Skim Off from Moldovan Wine
Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin has signed a decree to resume wine exports to Russia, a Moldovan official said Thursday. Russian authorities have not confirmed that a ban on wine imports from Moldova was lifted. Unofficial sources report that the state-owned vodka group Soyuzplodimport is in talks with Moldova, hoping to bargain the ownership of rights for the most popular wine trade marks to receive royalty from wine production.
“Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has given an order to resume wine exports to Russia immediately,” Valeriu Mironescu, director of the Moldova-Vin agency said Thursday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The official, however, did not give schedule for resumed exports. The Russian Agriculture Ministry and other agencies declined to confirm the information.
Russia imposed a ban on the import of Moldovan wine last spring, citing quality reasons after buying some 80 percent of the product. The move cut Moldova’s wine exports by one half, putting the whole economy in jeopardy. Moscow and Chisinau have been in talks over the ban all this time. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December 2006 that Russia and Moldova had agreed to resume the wine exports, but the country’s product was still far from Russian stores.
A Kommersant source in the Moldovan government said that talks were “in the final stage” and added that wine would be exported to Russian through one company.
Unofficial sources report that the Russian Agriculture Ministry held a tender in April, picking Soyuzplodimport as the sole importer of Moldovan wine. A Moldovan official confirmed that Soyuzplodimport’s director general Vladimir Loginov had been presenting Russia at wine talks for more than one month.
Russian and Moldovan importers explained to Kommersant that the two countries had agreed that the most popular Moldovan wine trade marks be registered with Soyuzplodimport while Moldovan producers would be paying royalty to the new rightholder. In return, the Russians would be promoting Moldovan wine on the market.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 15, 2007
|
|
|
