More agricultural producer groups created in Moldova with Word Bank support

Chisinau, 28 November /MOLDPRES/ - Six groups of agricultural producers in the horticulture sector were created in the summer and autumn of 2014, with the support of the World Bank's Moldovan Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MAC – P).

Five fruit and vegetable producers from the village of Ucrainca (Causeni district) assembled in an entrepreneurs' cooperation, Com-Ecoleguma, specialised in the production of early potatoes, potatoes and potato seeds. Another five producers from the village of Caplani (Stefan Voda district) created the Ivas Eco-Prim cooperative, specialised in producing a wide range of products - peaches, nectarines, grapes, apples, raspberries, strawberries, zucchini, potatoes, grains potatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers. Each producer has greenhouses and the plantations of all founders are equipped with irrigation systems, according to a press release by the Competitive Agriculture project.

"We created associations to solve two problems - the delivery of larger quantities of fruits and vegetables to interest distributors and avoid intermediaries, as well as to join efforts for the construction and setting of a refrigerator of about 500 tons," said Valeriu Tabunscic, the leader of the cooperative.

Both groups will apply to investment grants programmes within the MAC-P project, which aims at supporting producers in the procurement of  post-harvest equipment and technologies. The funding amounts to 350,000 dollars per one group of horticulturists, but accounting for no more than 50 per cent of the investment made.

Nine agricultural entrepreneurs cooperatives participated in the first round of selection of applications for the programme, developed by the MAC-P project in collaboration with the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry. The grants approved for eight cooperatives amount to 28 million lei.

The grants programme budget amounts to seven million dollars and will be carried out by 2017. The World Bank’s project, Competitive Agriculture, was launched in 2013 with a total budget of 27 million dollars.