Austrian suppliers from the Rebschule Tschida GmbH nursery sent to Russia a shipment of grape seedlings, representatives of the Chardonnay variety, popular and respected throughout the world. However, the Russian side was in no hurry to accept overseas supplies - the vines from Austria were subjected to thorough phytosanitary analysis.

As a result, imported planting material was declared infected. It turned out that the vines were infected with the bacterial virus Xylophilus ampelinus Panagopoulos, which contributes to the withering of the plant.

“Along with the seedlings, certificates arrived in Russia, allegedly confirming that the Chardonnay vines passed all the necessary control procedures of a phytosanitary nature and are not quarantine,” the Rosselkhoznadzor says. - The Austrian Plant Quarantine and Plant Protection Organization has provided such a certificate to Austrian products. Thus, this organization claimed that Chardonnay seedlings meet the phytosanitary standards of the Russian side. ”

However, the optimistic expectations of the organization's members did not materialize in reality, as a result of which a dangerous bacteriological virus almost penetrated Russian vineyards. After all, the main source of the spread of the Xylophilus ampelinus Panagopoulos virus is precisely planting material.