The first table grapes packing house in Moldova will start work in Costesti village of Ialoveni district in 2015. The construction works are underway. Director general of the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA) Ion Sula has told IPN that Moldova has great possibilities of exporting table grapes to the EU, but, for being sold, they must be of a high quality and packed appropriately.

Therefore, effort is to be made not only by the ANSA, but also by the agricultural producers. The national products must be promoted. “It’s not enough to have products. We must also promote them and guarantee that they are safe and of a high quality. To help the national producers meet the requirements of the European market, the first table grapes packing house started to be built in Moldova. The national producers saw in the European states how the table grapes must be gown and packed,” stated Ion Sula.

According to him, studies showed that Poland could purchase a large part of the table grapes from Moldova as this country does not grow such grapes. But Moldova must ensure homogenous consignments of safe grapes of a high quality and then must identify potential consumers. The packing house in Costesti will be able to pack 5,000 to 7,000 tonnes per season, but there are cold-storage facilities in the area with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes, where the table grapes could be stored. However, Moldova needs minimum 10 packing houses.
 
The construction and equipment works will cost about 27 million lei. Of this sum, 15 million lei was allocated from the National Regional Development Fund, while the rest will represent the contribution of groups of producers from the region.

The packing house will occupy an area of 2,000 m2 and will include a refrigerator of 1,500 tonnes.