♦ The turnover amounted to 8.2 million euros in 2023, and the target for 2024 is 10 million euros ♦ Abund Berry wants to do a 45 million euro project through the Investalim program.
Climatic challenges influence the global berry market and push producers to focus on production in protected areas and the processing of fruit into finished products, explained Ionel Burtea, founder of Abund Berry, in the ZF Investiți în România! show, made in partnership with CEC Bank.
“In 2023, we hit a lot with inflation and climate challenges, not only at the local level, in our own production, but also in the import area, where we see a climate that changes from year to year. The blueberry season in Peru was very affected, 70% of the production was affected at the end of the season, which led to a 400% increase in prices compared to the previous year”.
Climate changes are felt from season to season, which affects the ability to build a predictable business strategy for the fresh fruit market. In this context, Abund Berry started investing in greenhouses. “From year to year, climate challenges bring us to the area of investing in protected spaces. We have been on the construction site for two years and this year we are completing a greenhouse of one hectare of strawberries and a storage space”.
The investment for the one-hectare greenhouse amounts to 1.5 million euros, while the investment for a new storage area of 700 square meters amounts to 600,000 euros.
Today, Abund Berry produces about 300 tons of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries on 20 hectares in Gorj and Făgăraş. The greenhouse of one hectare will bring another 100 tons in own production and is realized through an AFIR financing. “We want to submit again for financing according to measure DR 15, on the part of greenhouses for raspberries and blueberries in protected spaces. (…) It amounts to 2.5 million euros, about three hectares”.
Ionel Burtea started the business in 2015 with a small blackberry plantation, and in recent years it has developed constantly. About three years ago, it managed to enter the shelves of some of the players in modern retail, and in order not to lose its place on the shelf, it chose to start importing as well.
Last year, the company sold about 4,000 tons of forest fruits, from imports, own production and purchases from other producers in Romania. In terms of processing, the company produced wine from forest fruits, but has given up that activity.
“The processing part is very important, where we haven’t invested and that’s what we want to do in the near future, to go to the 2nd quality area, to make a finished product. The climate challenges us to reach the finished product area, not to have only the fresh area”.
The turnover rose to 8.2 million euros in 2023, from 7.4 million euros in 2022, respectively below 2 million euros in 2021.
“This year we set out to exceed 10 million euros and we want to reach a figure of 20 million euros in five years”.
The entrepreneur has so far submitted projects or is preparing to submit to several programs and financing measures, starting from Investalim, up to the Just Transition Fund or the Modernization Fund. The ambitions are high, but the projects are not certain until they are financed.
“We have calculated these investments in our business plan and we focus a lot on what we do well, production and trade. These are plans and dreams of an entrepreneur. (…) We are a generation of young entrepreneurs who want to attract funds”.
Abund Berry has so far obtained a Start-Up Nation funding, an AFIR to the extent that in the meantime became DR 15, another AFIR funding for product promotion and a 4.1.1 bis funding where he gave up on the project.
“Today we have about three submitted projects and four more that we are going to submit, from POR 2.2, to Just Transition, the Modernization Fund or ElectricUp. (…) We are clearly saddled with a bureaucracy and an area of procedures where I, as an entrepreneur, have learned to be patient”.
One of the programs that the Abund Berry project is quite high on the list of eligible projects is the Investalim program, where it ranks 8th on the list. The company wants money for a project of over 45 million euros for the storage, storage and freezing of forest fruits with an integrated flow of sorting and packaging.
“We would like to have a regional hub in Gorj, we are talking about 2 hectares, that is, it would be one of the largest warehouses of fruits and vegetables in Romania and would help us to go out into the region, to deliver fruits to several countries fresh from other seasons, from other countries, and let’s also do the logistics part for retail”.
If it wins this project, the company must come up with a co-financing of 15 million euros, and Ionel Burtea is open to attracting a partner for the development of the project.
“We need an experienced player, we are talking about a regional hub there. Our experience is only a national one and we have the challenge of reaching the regional level and we will also need a patch of working capital, not only the initial investment. There we are talking about a turnover of 80,000 tons annually”.
On Tranziţie Justă, the company will submit a project in the finished product area, more precisely a facility in which to make frozen desserts from berries. The funding he is requesting through the program is around 8 million euros.
Separately, Abund Berry is working on an agrovoltaic project that he wants to submit to the Modernization Fund. The company obtained a Technical Approval for Connection (ATR) for 4.2 MW and also submitted an application for a 7.2 MW ATR.
“The land for agrovoltaic is near the Turceni thermal power plant, the network allows us to inject electricity, now we have to see the measures, we see that they are lagging”.
The company has 60 employees and wants to reach 88 by the end of 2025. Today it works with 10 workers from Nepal and wants to bring in another 30 people from non-EU
Tags: Invest Romania CEC Bank project Ionel Burtea Abund Berry ..
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