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It's a Time when Table Grapes Refuse to Become Wine

November 25, 2006

Rebuilding and modernizing the cold storage facility in Popeasca helped farmers from the region to sell their high-quality products at better prices; created jobs and brought innovative technology and know-how.

Challenge

Tatiana Gutu from the village of Ermoclia, located in the south-eastern Moldova, used to have big problems during the harvesting period. Her husband is working abroad and sends money to cover the University fees for their only daughter. Her parents are 75 and 73 years old and can't help her to collect grapes and apples from their land. Last year after a major effort, she harvested her grapes but found no buyers.

"Last year I went to all major buyers in the region that happen to be wine producers, with my "Moldova" table grape variety. The price they offered was 1.1 lei per kilogram (cc. 0.08 USD), it made my year-long effort worthless." Finding a buyer is a typical problem for local farmers during harvesting period. As there are few buyers of fresh apples and grapes, the wineries and juice producers have no competition in most of Moldovan villages, therefore their prices barely cover local growers' costs. As a result, most of the orchards in Popeasca and Ermoclia villages were abandoned in the period of 1994-2004 forcing people to look for better opportunities outside Moldova.

Initiative

The Agribusiness Development Project, financed by USAID and implemented by CNFA, aims to increase rural incomes and employment by improving the international competitiveness of Moldova's High Value Agriculture sector.

In 2004 Original-Product Ltd decided to renovate the old cold storage facility in the village of Popeasca and, as an ADP partner, the company benefited from consultancy and technical assistance with respect to modern storage technologies and best equipment. ADP also facilitated Alexandru Arsenii, the manager of Original-Product Ltd to attend the PMA Fresh Summit – 2005, one of the world's largest international trade fairs for fresh produce industry. As a result, Alexandru implemented some innovative technologies in fruit handling and storage that considerably reduced his costs. Assisted by ADP, Original-Product is also implementing the HACCP Food Safety System, which will enable the company to improve the quality of its product.

Results

In 2006 Original-Product Ltd started to buy high quality apples and grapes from the local farmers at much higher prices than the juice traders and wineries and Tatiana Gutu became an Original-Product supplier. "This year I had no problems in selling my grapes" she recalls. "I sold them at a price 3 times higher than last year. As the new cold storage facility is near and offers a competitive price, many villagers intend to recover their vineyards and orchards in the coming years. Working our fields became profitable again." The ADP-facilitated Original-Product Ltd investments have changed the attitude of small farmers, who started to put emphasis on the quality rather than on the quantity of their fresh products. The cold storage facility created 16 permanent and 30 seasonal jobs. Original-Product Ltd employed a University specialist to assist local farmers during the harvesting period. The company also offers pre-cooling and storage services for those who prefer to sell their high-quality products off-season at better prices.

Today, Chiril Cojocaru, the mayor of Popeasca, looks with optimism to the future of his village: "Since the cold storage facility was opened there are no more calls to tear out the orchards. People started to rehabilitate them and became more confident in their future here."

People in the region started to care for the quality of their products, because they know that we offer better prices than other buyers, but at the same time we buy only high-quality products.
--Alexandr Arsenii, Original-Product Ltd Director

Photo caption:

The farmers from Popeasca village sell their high-quality apples to Original-Product for twice as much as the price they received last year, when they sold them to the juice processors.

CNFA^® programs in Moldova are primarily funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under cooperative agreements. This website was also made possible through support provided by USAID. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID.