Swiss company to invest in Balti Free Economic Zone

Chisinau, 18 October /MOLDPRES/- Swiss company Schoeni signed today an Investment Agreement worth 1.5 million euros with Free Economic Zone Bălți, Ștefan Vodă subzone. The signing of the agreement is the result of a study conducted by Schoeni experts on opportunities in the agricultural sector in Moldova in the period 2020-2021.

After positively evaluating the investment prospects of working in our country, in July 2021 the Swiss company Schoeni registered in Moldova the company HIS EAST Ltd and became a resident of ZELB (Ștefan Vodă subzone). An investment of 1.5 million euros will be used to build a 2,000 m.sq. factory in Ștefan Vodă subzone for processing fruits and vegetables.

The project aims at enabling small agricultural producers in the south-east of the country to transform primary agricultural production into value-added products. The factory will be equipped with modern equipment for processing fruits and vegetables and will have a production capacity of two thousand tons per year. In the long run, it is planned to expand production capacity and space five times - up to ten thousand square meters, with a corresponding increase in investment and jobs.

Currently, in the Ștefan Vodă subzone, the construction of engineering networks is underway and work is being done to prepare the necessary infrastructure for the operation of the factory. It is expected to open at the beginning of the next agricultural season, in May-June 2022. The factory will start processing vegetables (cabbage, beets, carrots, potatoes, onions), berries (raspberries, strawberries) and fruits. Both frozen semi-finished products and finished products, including those under the Schoeni Food brand, will be produced and exported to Switzerland and other EU countries.

Schoeni is a holding company with over a thousand employees in Switzerland, Italy and Slovakia. Schoeni Food started its activity in 1920, in Switzerland, with the production of cabbage on an industrial scale. The company is a pioneer in organic production and is constantly expanding its product range. The Balti Free Economic Zone (ZELB) was established in March 2010. During 11 years of activity, 78 residents were registered in the area, whose total investments exceed 222 million dollars. During this period, 11,600 jobs were created, with an average salary of 8,600 lei. The volume of industrial production is currently 6.9 billion lei per year, and total sales amount to 7.1 billion lei per year. ZELB has 19 subzones, of which three in Balti and the rest throughout the country.

Photo: ZEL Bălți