Moldovan MPs protest establishment of company for wine exports to Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The standing committee on agriculture and food-processing industry in the Moldovan parliament has protested against the recent establishment of a Belarusian-Moldovan company that will export wine to Belarus.

The company was set up by the Moldovan Agrovin Bulboaca wine producing company and the Belarusian State Food Industry Concern (Beldzyarzhharchpram) in an attempt to resume wine supplies to Belarus that halted in late 2006. The proposal to establish such a company was put forward by the Moldova-Vin winemaking department of the Moldovan agriculture ministry.

Earlier reports had it that Maldbelvin had already concluded supply contracts and planned to export some 100,000 decaliters of wine material a month.

A member of the parliamentary committee told BelaPAN that the lawmakers opposed the conditions on which the joint company had been set up.

He said that they feared that the enterprise would "monopolize" the export trade in wine with Belarus. "This violates the constitutional rights of other producers and the principle of free competition that has been declared in Moldova," he added.

The Moldovan Union of Wine Producers and Exporters also expressed concern about the establishment of Maldbelvin, local media outlets reported. They quoted the head of the union, Georgy Kozub as saying that the joint company wanted to sell wine at a price of $0.40 per liter. "After paying excise and value-added tax, Moldovan producers will have $0.28 left for one liter, which is less than a kilogram of grape costs," Mr. Kozub said.