Moldovan wine to be available for two more months
The measure comes in respond to Moldova’s decision to stop exporting the raw produce for the further bottling of wine in Belarus.
Therefore, the problems of Belarusian wine importers become the problems of Moldovan wine producers. The European Radio for Belarus has asked Georgy Kozub, the Chairman of Producers and Exporters of Moldovan Wines, to comment on the consequences of the move.
“It is a loss of market for all wine growers in Moldova to put it crystal clear,” he said.
The letter from the Ministry of Trade was sent out to all the companies that imported the Moldova-made wines. According to Aliaksej Shaucou, the commercial director of the Classical Wines company, all the importers are currently crossing out Moldova from their contracts.
“Annually, we sign an agreement with the Ministry of Trade regarding the supplies of alcoholic beverages, including the wines and cognacs. The agreement clearly stipulates the countries and suppliers.
Following the letter from the Ministry of Trade, we have to amend the lists of supplying countries by crossing Moldova out. It is very serious for us, because we specialized mainly in Moldovan wines.
We even created additional jobs for those contracts. Now, we have to re-orient ourselves westwards. Thus, we will have to import more expensive wines from the other regions,” Shaucou said.
The European Radio for Belarus decided to find out for how long the stocks of the Moldovan wines at the Belarusian stores would last. Raisa Valoshyna, who runs a Brest-based store, tells us about it.
“We have a sufficient stock of the Moldovan wine till the end of the second quarter. Normally, our store sells approximately 7 trucks of wines or roughly 7000 dals. We have good relations with different suppliers from France, Argentina and Spain,” she said.
ERB also called Sviatlana Mikalajcyk, the director of wine factory in Vicebsk, to find out how things stand there after the measure.
“The Moldavians told us straight they would continue supplying the raw produce. But if this issue is not resolved between the governments, our factory will not come to a halt.
We feel quite for the next month and a half to come. Afterwards, we will import the raw from Hungary,” she told the European Radio for Belarus.
What about the stock of Moldovan wines in the shops? Natallia, a sales attendant from a wine boutique “Stopar” in Minsk told us the following:
“According to the management, we will have a sufficient stock till summer. We usually have around 600 customers daily, with 70 percent out of them buying Moldovan wines.”
As it has become common in Belarus, the government handles the problems of wine producers. Nobody bothers again to ask ordinary customers.
A customer, who has got used to Moldovan wines in terms of quality and cost ratio, will have to buy more expensive wines.
Anyway, the Belarusians still have a choice. At least for some months…
Photo by www.ralphradford.com
