Over 400,000 dollars to be invested in Moldova till 2020 to produce vine planting material

Chisinau, 31 May /MOLDPRES/ - Over 400,000 dollars till 2020 will be invested in the production of certified vine planting material oriented towards market needs. An agreement of understanding on the carrying out of these investments today was signed by the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Moldova’s Office for Vine and Wine, HEKS Moldova Foundation and the Scientific and Practical Institute of Horticulture and Food Technologies.   

The investments will be oriented to modernizing the infrastructure and improving procedures of producing planting material for the plantation of new vineyards with certified planting material, free of restrictive pathogens for vine. As a result, the quality of grapes will improve, in line with the compulsory requirements for export to the markets of EU, Middle East and Asia, thus ensuring the competitiveness of the wine-making and vine-growing sectors from Moldova, the press service of the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry has reported.     

“In this way, we will enhance the quality of grapes, according to the obligatory requirements for export to EU markets and will ensure the competitiveness of the country’s vine-growing and wine-making sectors,”  Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Minister Liviu Volconovici said.

For her part, Director of the USAID Mission in Moldova Karen R. Hilliard said that “this memorandum will lay foundations of the process of production of mother plantations free of viruses for table grapes and the vine-growing and wine-making sectors of Moldova.”  

The memorandum signed sees, in particular, the restoration of the in-vitro multiplication laboratory, acclimatization greenhouse, conservator of clones of the Scientific and Practical Institute of Horticulture and Food Technologies, foundation of at least eight hectares of grafted mother plantations, for at least eight Moldovan varieties of wine grapes, as well as for at least eight varieties of table grapes.    

At the same time, decision-makers will initiate a procedure of accreditation of the Phyto-sanitary Control Laboratory of the institute, in line with the standard  ISO/EIC 17025 and approximation of the Moldovan legislation to the EU norms.  

Subsequently, the material produced by the research institute will be distributed for multiplication to private nurseries, which, for their turn, must develop the process of production of grafted vines of the “Certificat” (Certified) biological category for supply to vine-growers from Moldova. According to estimations, the investment of private nurseries in the foundation of mother/father plantations and their own infrastructure will exceed the value of the financings meant for the Scientific and Practical Institute of Horticulture and Food Technologies.    

“For the first time, the private sector has committed to contribute. This fact will enhance the competitiveness of the vine-growing and wine-making sectors,” the director of the National Office for Vine and Wine, Gheorghe Arpentin, said.

For her part, the director of the HEKS Foundation in Moldova, Veronica Cazacu, said: “We have seen the interest in grapes from Moldova and the sector’s potential; therefore, we ruled to contribute to the modernization of the vine-growing and wine-making sectors.”  

Presently, 20 nurseries work in Moldova, which annually produce about 6-7 million grafted cuttings. As a rule, the vine nurseries produce only planting material of the Usual biological category, which does not meet international standards. The USAID/APM project, in partnership with a private nursery,  purchased the first equipment in Moldova for thermal treatment of vine planting material, which is an obligatory procedure in the European Union.   

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)