In Moldova, on a fertile plain just a few kilometers from the meandering Dniester River and a mere 30-minute drive from the capital city of Chisinau, stand Velfruct's apple and plum orchards. A modern building housing offices and a cold storage and packaging area flank these. This fruit company, founded in 2010 as a trading company, began establishing super-intensive orchards in 2017, now covering 70 hectares for apples and 30 hectares for plums.
This young company loads over 600 trucks annually. For two years now, it has begun supplying importers and retailers in both east and west European Union countries with its apples and plums, supplemented by volumes from other growers.
Velfruct's offices and packing station are located right between the orchards
IFS Broker status in progress
Last year, as much as 50% of its plums - some, the Tophit variety, the rest, Stanley, Angeleno, and President in equal parts – went to Germany. They also sent a few trucks to the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and Scandinavia are on this season's wish list. To partner with a major German retailer's service provider, Velfruct is in the process of achieving IFS Broker status. To fulfill all those exports, the company supplements its 1,000 tons with a double amount from other growers in the area. Velfruct sorts and packs these plums in a facility it built in the municipality of Cosernita in 2019.
Wide range of apples
Velfruct harvests a good 5,000 tons of apples per year. However, to meet export demand, it buys as much from other growers as possible. "In the early years, Russia was an obvious market, as it was for most every growing company in Moldova," begins commercial manager Anastasia Fistican. "They also paid more than our western neighbor Romania."
"Now we ship Gala Buckeye and Golden Delicious, among others, to the Netherlands and Granny Smith to Sweden. We also grow Braeburn, Red Chief, and Story Inored, and our destinations for those include Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Latvia. In Spain, we have a good sales window in February and March, and to Romania, we mainly send Idared apples we source from other growers."
Until before February this year, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman were also regular Velfruct apple buyers. Those were shipped safely by sea, packed in bushels, to the Middle East via the Romanian port of Costanza. "That's no longer viable. The 30-day transit time has increased to 60. That's too long. In February, when the situation in the Red Sea became too hot, we decided to hit the pause button for this market for a while," says Anastasia.
School fruit for the British market
School fruit
New this year is the' fruit for school' program the company managed to conclude with a UK client. "For a month now, we have made weekly shipments of small sizes - children are the target audience - in 700 g bags. It's running smoothly and the program lasts until the end of May. With cold stores for a total of 5,000 tons, we'll have no trouble delivering the right quality for that long."
Uprooted Fuji apple trees
Regarding cultivation, Anastasia explains that Velfrtuct has uprooted its Fuji variety trees which grew in part of its orchard. "These apples' color was fading after three years. We're not quite sure why but we suspect it has to do with too little difference in day and night temperatures. Temperature, and weather conditions in general, are becoming a genuine issue," she says. "Although our trees are all protected with anti-hail nets, in the case of the Goldens and Granny Smiths, these couldn't completely prevent some sunburn."
The apples are being sorted according to size, colour and quality
More fruit varieties on the way
Next year, Velfruct will market own-grown peaches and apricots, too. "We got the stonefruit rhizomes from Italy. The proximity of the Dniester River means we have sufficient water, making expansion possible. And despite the acute shortage of labor, which is a common problem for all producers, we maintain control over the entire chain from production to distribution," Anastasia concludes.
When FreshPublishers visited in early September, the orchards were quiet, and the packaging plant calm. That is because it had rained the previous night, making entering the orchards impossible. That rain announced the arrival of cyclone Boris, which would ravage several countries of Central Europe, and extend for a few more days the process of harvesting in the orchards of Velfruct.
Velfruct is GlobalGAP, GRASP and SMETA certified and will be at the upcoming Fruit Attraction. You can find the company at the joint Moldova Fruct sector organization's stand (10D18).
For more information:
Velfruct – Prim SRL
Cosernita (Criuleni) – Moldova
Tel: +373 605 37 053
[email protected]
www.velfruct.md