Importers from Croatia interested in fruits, grapes from Moldova

Chisinau, 9 October /MOLDPRES/ - Meet your Importer is the title of an informative film for farmers from Moldova about the Croatian market and importers. The material was carried out within an initiative on the promotion of Moldovan fruits and grapes from the Central and Eastern Europe, launched by the Regional Centre of Consultancies in Business (CRCB), in partnership  with the High Value Agriculture Activity in Moldova (HVAA)  project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).   
The promotion of fruits and grapes produced in Moldova in countries from the Central and Eastern Europe started in 2019, through organization of various meetings and commercial missions, in order to promote native producers and enhance their access to new markets. ‘’Representatives of importers from Croatia and Slovenia visited Moldovan producers, inspected plantations and infrastructure for preservation, sorting and packing our entrepreneurs avail of,’’ the CRCB representative, Octavian Olaru, said. As a result of these activities, table grapes of the Moldova variety reached shelves of the Konzum networks from Croatia and Mercator from Slovenia.     
According to a specialist in marketing at the USAID/HVAA project, Tatiana Burca, there is room for grapes from Moldova on the market of Croatia, Slovenia, Poland and importers from the central Europe are willing to import from Moldova, but Moldovan exporters should observe more conditions.   
The main conditions demanded by importers from Croatia for the table grapes are: caliber 18+, green bunch, packing in wood boxes of 8 kg each with imprinted logo and provided for with generators with sulphur dioxide for preserving grapes and the certificates GLOBALG.A.P. and GRASP represent an advantage. At the same time, the grapes which do not observe these criteria will be treated as grapes of low quality and sold at an appropriate prize. As for the criteria demanded by Croatian importers for plums, there is the caliber 30+, packing in wood boxes of 9 kg with imprinted logo. Just as in the case of grapes, the GLOBALG.A.P. and GRASP certificates represent an advantage.   
Statistics data shows that Croatia in 2019 imported from Moldova 619 tons of plums worth about 300,000 dollars and over 160 tons of table grapes amounting to about 151,000 dollars. In 2020, the commercial season for plums and grapes just starts and 20 tons of plums have been already supplied to Croatia through USAID/HVAA.  
The farmers from Moldova can see the informative video at the following link: youtube.com/channel/UCEEKUI2sTeQdupoMCreQ4-w 
Photo source: USAID/HVAA