The European Union (EU) organisation tasked with reviving the war-damaged south-eastern Balkans has released a plan to move Macedonia's wine industry from a bulk producer of cheap wine towards a higher-end sector, tapping western export markets.
The country has a wine-making tradition, still exhibits a (former) communist command economy inspired indifference to quality.
The European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) plan aims to change this, enabling Macedonia to exploit tariff-free access to the EU already agreed by Brussels for 300,000 hectolitres (HL) of wine per annum. EAR wine experts will work with Macedonian producers and the national agriculture ministry "to set up modern methods of monitoring and controlling production."
Sectors: Wine
