Under Moldovan law, a wide range of goods and services including all kinds of food and food byproducts, food-processing and packaging equipment and materials, alcoholic and other beverages, tobacco, wood products, and various types of clothing must be certified before they can be imported into Moldova. No later than one month from the time of the initial application, a foreign company applying for Moldovan product certification should receive a response on the validity of its product's international certification in Moldova. Documents required for certification should be prepared in Moldovan. English-language documents should have a notarized translation into Moldovan. If goods do arrive without a certificate, the imported products must be held at a Moldovan customs warehouse, where they must remain until a certificate of conformity is presented to customs officials.
Storage is expensive and requires additional documentation, such as a security certificate.
Required application forms are provided by the entity that will ultimately issue the certificate. After the fee has been paid, the certification body provides the company with all forms necessary for the certification process. A certificate of hygiene is obligatory for foodstuffs and related raw materials, various products for children, water-supply equipment and materials, and other products. A certificate of hygiene must be issued by the state sanitary inspectorate before the product is imported into Moldova. It can be granted either on the basis of an international certificate of hygiene already issued or on the result of local examination.