The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) started the collection of supply offers from fruit and vegetable farmers in Moldova to help them find new markets. The announcement was made by Sergiu Harea, head of CCI's economy department told a talk-show on Radio Moldova, IPN reports.

Harea explained that the collection of offers was launched in order to support farmers hit by the Russian embargo and to promote their production through international marketing networks.

According to Harea, fruit and vegetable growers must come up with concrete commercial offers, including information about production capacities, the farmed varieties, delivery terms, etc, in order to get results and find business partners. To this goal, a form was developed, available on CCI's web page www.chamber.md, which must be filled in and sent by email to eic@chamber.md.

Afterwards, the information will be sorted and sent to CCI's partners abroad and distributed through international marketing networks. CCI will provide these services free of charge until 31 December 2014.

Sergiu Harea notes that many fruit farmers are already looking to other markets than Russia. “I've been in Stefan Voda, where the farmers aren't waiting for the reopening of the Russian market. They found business partners in Qatar, where they will export plums. They are also negotiating with parties from other countries. Unfortunately, our farmers aren't used to searching for markets on their own, as is normal in business, but are waiting for someone to come and collect their fruits from the orchards”, said Harea.

CCI also plans a massive information campaign directed towards vegetable and fruit farmers concerning quality and packaging requirements and marketing models and methods.