‘Our company is not worried about the Moldavian wine for the time being,’ the Purchase Director of Ural Liquor Company Ltd. Sergey Lapshin said to UrBC representative, relating to the recent requirement for a special state trademark in Moldavia. On January 1, 2007, it will become impossible to export wines from Moldavia to Russia or any other country without this trademark.

‘While the Russian law was preventing the entrepreneurs from importing Moldavian wine, the product niche has already been filled, so it might be difficult for the producers to regain their share of the market,’ Mr Lapshin believes.

‘Moldavian wine can only build up its position again if it remains cheap, since even the strict quality monitoring does not help this product become really good; if it is going to be sold at the same price as the better wines are sold, it will be extremely difficult to grow strong again,’ he observed.

Moldavia started issuing the special state trademarks on December 25, 2006. This trademark is provided at the request of the wineries, yet only the ones that have been certified by the special Russian-Moldavian monitoring committees and by the National Alcohol Certifying Center are eligible to apply.