Moldavian wine industry, between legal reforms and economic challenges

Abstract

The Moldavian wine industry it is experiencing a transition period from a model based almost exclusively on export towards the CIS country and Russia in particular, to one where export goes to many different markets. Russian embargoes and the Association Agreement, which include the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area are the 2 turning point moments of the last 10 years. Since September 2014 the DCFTA entered into force, allowing Moldavian exporter to have access to the largest single market of the world, the EU. In this article we want to study the changes in legal framework regulating the wine industry, that took place in the last years, necessary to set the base for a competitive and pro-business environment, and the economic effects on Moldavian wine industry of the area of free trade with the EU (DCFTA) which opened up to Moldavian companies the door of European market. In order to do this, we will analyze first in details the most important provision covered in the DCFTA, to understand better what is all about, and second the new Law which was approved by the parliament of the Republic of Moldova in 2012, and entered into force in 2013, to reform and innovate drastically the legal framework governing wine business. At the end we make a comparison between wine export value, before and after the DCFTA, trying to understand the future trend and what Moldavian producers will need to do in order to diversify their markets, thus increasing on a permanent basis the total value of export.