According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova (MAIA), about 70% of the commercial volume of stone fruits exported by Moldova to the EU in 2021 was certified with GLOBAL.G.A.P. In total, almost 30 000 tonnes of plums, apricots, cherries and sour cherries were sent to the EU market last year.

As EastFruit previously reported, more than 100 producers in the horticulture sector of Moldova have valid GLOBAL.G.A.P certificates, 40 have GRASP. According to this indicator, Moldova is ahead of many countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

An expert on food safety systems of the Efficient Agriculture Moldova project, Andrei Cumpanichi, believes that fruit-growing farms certified by GLOBAL.G.A.P exported even more products last year. Some of the fruits were sent to the Russian market, where buyers did not require a mandatory certificate of international safety standards. In addition, some GLOBAL.G.A.P-certified farmers have shipped large volumes of water-cracked plums to Romania for industrial processing. In this case, the GLOBAL.G.AP certificate was not required, too.

Most of Moldovan stone fruits, certified with GLOBAL.G.A.P and GRASP, were sold in European supermarket chains. However, in this case, Moldovan farmers partially had to sacrifice profitability, as they cooperated mainly with European wholesalers who repackaged fruit from Moldova before delivery to chain retailers. However, there were cases of Moldovan agricultural enterprises exporting plums and grapes in consumer packaging directly to European supermarkets in 2021. But there were still few of them.

Andrei Cumpanici believes that the increasing number of fruit farmers receiving or confirming the GLOBAL.G.A.P and GRASP certificates annually will keep contributing to the “premiumization” of Moldovan fruit exports. In his opinion, farmers who have a post-harvest infrastructure and are aimed at direct deliveries to European supermarkets should also work on preparing for ISO 22000, IFS, SMETA certification in the near future.

Сообщение Around 70% of Moldovan stone fruit exports to the EU were provided by farms with GLOBAL.G.A.P certificates появились сначала на EastFruit.

FCO, a major Georgian blueberry producer working mainly for export, intends to enter the high-price and premium segments of the global market this year. The company’s products will be traded under the GeorgianBlue brand from now on.

FCO LLC, located in the village of Laituri, Ozurgeti region (Guria region, Western Georgia), is currently producing blueberries on 36 hectares. The company received the Global G.A.P. GRASP certificate for blueberries in 2020. The company owns another 290 hectares of agricultural land to be converted gradually in the same region. In particular, FCO plans to increase the area of ​​blueberry plantation to 260 hectares in the next 4-5 years.

“The company has focused on improving the post-harvest infrastructure on the eve of the new season. In particular, we have installed a modern rapid pre-cooling system on our farm. We expect the latest equipment for sorting and packaging blueberries to be delivered from the USA by the end of April, which will allow sorting berries both by size and softness, and packing them into containers of various shapes and sizes – 125 grams, 250 grams, 500 grams, etc. We already have refrigerated units for storage. So, the company will enter the new season with a completely developed post-harvest infrastructure that comply with international standards. In addition, with the new brand our products will be recognizable both in the local and export markets – they will be presented under the GeorgianBlue brand (“GeorgianBlue – Finest Blueberries from the hills of Guria”). All this, together with the volume and growing global demand for blueberries, will allow us to successfully cooperate with high-level foreign buyers –  supermarket chains and other large foreign traders that value quality and are ready to pay more,” FCO representative Rati Morchiladze told EastFruit .

Read also: Georgian farmer successfully develops berry business thanks to support from EU-funded project

According to Rati Morchiladze, the company plans to export its products to the markets of the EU countries, Great Britain, Russia and the Persian Gulf this season.

“We are now negotiating with large buyers from these countries. The demand is high and they are putting forward attractive offers for us. According to our preliminary estimates, we will export at least 95% of all our products this year,” he said.

According to the current forecast of the FCO company, it will start the blueberry season this year in early June – 4-5 days later than last year due to weather conditions. “However, the timing of the start of the harvest may still change – it will depend on the weather conditions in the second half of spring”, – a company representative said.

As Rati Morchiladze said, the company will set up a collection point for blueberries from farmers in the Guria region this year for the first time.

“This will help them sell their products, and for us to have larger volumes of export shipments. A proper quality control mechanism has been introduced in our production, and sorting will be available. Finished products, depending on the quality, will be sold through the appropriate channels,” he said.

According to the company’s plans, this season it intends to sell about 300 tons of blueberries, 180 tons of which will be its own harvest, and the rest will be purchases from local farmers.

“We will gradually expand our blueberry plantation, and accordingly, our yields will grow. We are sure that in a few years GeorgianBlue will take a leading position in the export of Georgian agricultural products and become a worthy participant in the international blueberry market,” Rati Morchiladze noted.

Сообщение Georgian blueberry producer FCO aim to export on the premium segment with “GeorgianBlue” brand появились сначала на EastFruit.

Last week, several horticultural enterprises in Moldova received GLOBAL.G.A.P certificates. As a result, in 2020, 26 producers of fruit crops were certified according to this standard of safety and quality of agri-food products in the country. Currently, in Moldova, the number of GLOBAL.G.A.P. certificate holders exceeds 70, and 19 of them have also passed the GLOBAL GRASP social responsibility certification this year.

Andrii Kumpanich, a specialist of the AWP/USAID project on food safety and post-harvest technologies, notes that many of the farmers certified according to the GLOBAL.G.A.P and GRASP standards with the project’s assistance are plums and table grapes producers. Most of them received certificates in July-August, before the 2020 harvest of late-ripening varieties of these products. In particular, due to this fact, Moldovan exporters were able to completely use the increased quota (up to 15,000 tons) for duty-free export of plums to the European Union. In total, 22,000 tons of these fruits were exported from Moldova to the EU this year.

Read also: Exports of Moldovan table grapes to the EU decreased in 2020

The expert believes that this year, Moldova has still not entirely used its potential to export plums to the European market since the harvest and product quality were not high enough due to the drought. Next year, if the weather conditions are close to the average, we can expect a sharp increase in exports of plums and grapes from agricultural enterprises certified according to GLOBAL.G.A.P. and GRASP standards to the European market.

Read also: Moldova gradually increasing apple exports to Russia

Сообщение In 2021, GLOBAL.G.A.P. and GRASP certifications will boost exports of Moldovan plums and grapes to the EU – opinion появились сначала на EastFruit.

Trade representatives from the German fruit procurement company A&B Fruchthandels GmbH travelled to Moldova in September. Prior to the trip, USAID’s project “Effective Agriculture of Moldova” (APM) assisted the German company with facilitating a series of online discussions with 13 local agricultural fruit-producing enterprises in order for this importer to familiarize themselves with the economic profiles.

During their visit, A&B Fruchthandels specialists inspected orchards, warehouses, and products from potential business partners in Moldova. A preliminary agreement was reached on the supply of several hundred tons of plums (20-30 refrigerated trucks) this year.

Read also: Moldova Fruct Association plans to export 30,000-35,000 tons of plums to Russia

The German importer did not require the GlobalG.A.P. and GRASP safety and social responsibility certificates from Moldovan suppliers. However, ownerships of these certificates were considered an advantage during product pricing discussions. Their main criteria for selecting suppliers were large volumes of products of the same type and uniform quality (i.e., caliber, pulp color, etc.).

Representatives from A&B Fruchthandels sought to purchase the high-quality plum varieties Stanley, Lepotika, Top Hit, and President (a medium-sized late plum) at relatively low prices. In addition, the parties discussed the prospects for the supply of the Moldovan plum variety ‘Cacanska Early’ for next year. Roughly half of A&B Fruchthandels’ customer base in Germany is pastry chefs using fruits in traditional German pastries.

Among the EU countries, Germany is the third-largest buyer of Moldovan plums after Romania and Poland. Last year Moldova exported about 1,300 tons of these fruits to Germany. This year, despite the reduced plum harvest in Moldova, its supplies to the German market may increase by the end of the season.

Сообщение Moldova increases plums exports to Germany появились сначала на EastFruit.