Success Stories

Victor Cîșlari is a farmer in the village of Chircăiești, Căușeni district, who manages the household of Țărăște under the same name.

The businessman produces fresh and dehydrated fruit, which he grows carefully in his two orchards. After planting a conventional apricot and peach orchard, he decided to venture into organic farming and planted an organic plum orchard. Recently, it has also opened its own fruit dryers.

“My business started out of a desire to capitalise on Moldova’s wealth – people and soil. I have always wanted to make rational use of the resource of this dwarf land, which we keep for future generations”, says Victor Cîșlari.

The farmer also states that his work in planting and caring for orchards was facilitated by the PARE 1 + 1 programme, from which he was able to obtain a tractor.

And when she learned about the Organisation for Entrepreneurship Development’s (ODA) support tool for the digitalisation of the business, she did not hesitate and applied for funding. Of the ODA programme, the businessman accessed RON 200 thousand or about 60 % of the investment cost for digitalisation.

The farmer is currently already testing new technologies in his orchards and the change is visible.

‘The organic orchard is in the Month of the Nistrului and the risk of frost here is very high. Peach and apricot needles are the same in the area frequently affected by frost. That’s why I got one weather station for each orchard. This investment allows us to carry out agricultural work in the right time and to have a better say. Accurate weather forecasts will enable us to prevent frost losses. We will be alerted when the temperature suddenly drops’, he also told Victor Cîșlari.

From the support it received through the SME Digitalisation Support Tool, the entrepreneur also installed a video monitoring system in orchards and warehouses. In this way, thefts have decreased and damage to fruit trees is prevented.

Victor Cîșlari said that the procedure for accessing the grant had been easy and that he had not encountered any difficulties. Moreover, the entrepreneur tells that he did not need help in preparing the file.

“We have very easily accessed the grant, without needing someone else’s help, and we see results from the investment. Already this year, the pink was about 15-20 % higher. Losses due to theft have also decreased. Thus, we increased the sales volume by a further 10 %. We estimate that the russeting in the coming years will be higher, and the quality of the fruit will increase, thanks to the technologies put in place’, he reported from plans Victor Cîșlari.

The businessman is keen to export his organic production to the European Union market, which he sees in the future. In order to see this dream, certification preparations have also started.

Although he says that it is not easy in Moldova to set up a thriving business in agriculture, Victor Cîșlari is convinced that this is possible and that there are many possibilities. The existing development programmes, in his view, provide important support for business.

Among the difficulties experienced by the entrepreneur was the lack of liquidity, the lack of labour, but also the difficulty in accessing foreign markets for the sale of production.

Despite these impediments, Victor Cîșlari is nevertheless confident that Moldovan agriculture has prospects of becoming profitable.

“We will continue to work to achieve what we have set ourselves. Early on, good times will also come for farmers. I am very confident that we will succeed’, he also told the entrepreneur.

The support instrument for the digitalisation of SMEs was funded by the European Union with EUR 500 000 and implemented in 2020-2021 as support in the context of the pandemic. 96 investment projects were financed in the form of vouchers of RON 20.000 or grants of up to RON 200 thousand, resulting in the creation of 317 jobs. The Digital Transformation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Programme was launched in 2022. Through the new programme, domestic companies can access non-repayable financial support of up to RON 500 thousand for the digitalisation of production and service provision processes.