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STATUS QUO
ROMANIA

Valeriu Cotea
Professor at Faculty of Horticulture, Ion Ionescu de la Brad
University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of
Iasi, former Rector of the University. Knight of the Romanian
National Order of Faithful Service (Ordinul Naţional Serviciul
Credincios). Chairman of the OIV Commission Oenology.
International judge and OIV competitions observer.
Clearly, once the pandemic started in 2020 tion. It is possible that in the near future, due
and the resulting restrictions were put into to a common declining workforce, PIWI (fun-
place, consumers’ behaviour changed. In Ro- gus-resistant vines) will enter the Romanian
mania, the majority of wine consumption was system.
registered at different public events, so, clear- Customers have started paying more atten-
ly, it was in free fall. The silver lining was online tion to organic foods in general, therefore
sales and supermarket chain buying. Also, ex- some will accept paying a higher price for
ports of Romanian wine to northern countries biodynamic wines. For the moment, Romania
like UK, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia etc. almost has some bio and biodynamic wines, most
doubled. I am positive that the Romanian being produced in the south eastern part of
wine sector has gained some new friends in the country, where the climatic conditions are
the pandemic era. favourable for this type of culture. At present,
Even if the social part, probably the most im- big supermarket chains have started organi-
portant part in having a glass of wine with fri- sing special aisles specifically for organic pro-
ends at a wine tasting with a real, live somme- ducts, while more and more campaigns salute
lier, is absent in drinking at home, I remain an their benefits. The consumer thus becomes
optimist. Humans are social beings and will al- familiarised with these foods and understands
ways be thirsty for interaction, but, in the long that bio and biodynamic mean respect for na-
run, change is good and technology (be it on- ture and the environment.
line sommeliers or the online ordered weekly I believe, in Europe will there be enough
wine basket delivered on your doorstep) is the workers to cultivate the vineyards, when the
future. countries and EU close the borders and the
In my opinion, the COVID-19 pandemic will workers from Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, or
not affect present vineyards and grape varie- Romania stay at home? Less and less hands-
ties directly, at least not in Romania. However, -on-deck in the vineyard has been expected
it is my strong belief that vine growers will to happen, as the common risk of worker tur-
soon start using lesser-known national grape nover is very high. At present, there are more
varieties, easier to manage from a technologi- and more Romanian workers returning home,
cal point of view. Moreover, vineyard mechani- due to COVID-19 closures in the rest of the
zation will gain momentum, as human labour EU, therefore, in the near future, there should
is less and less represented. For the time be- be no issues in recruiting temporary workers.
ing, Romania does not use interspecific grape However, all the big wineries in Romania have
varieties. Indeed, it is countries like Germany, started using mechanization for pruning and
Italy or Sweden that led the way in this direc- harvesting, especially for bulk wines. ƅ
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