Fruit Garden: investments worth 2 million euros in the Centre of Excellence in Viticulture and Winemaking in Chisinau

The Centre of Excellence in Viticulture and Winemaking in Chisinau will be modernized and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment thanks to an investment worth 2 million EUR. The investment is part of the “Fruit Garden” project, implemented by the Moldovan Government with EU support through the European Investment Bank.

The modernization works involve the construction and equipping of a didactic-experimental horticultural station, the renovation of the organoleptic laboratory and the winery, and the provision of IT equipment. The micro-vinification teaching laboratory and the horticultural products processing laboratory will also be equipped.

“The investment includes a laboratory where the students, guided by teachers and specialists invited from outside, will process these fruits, grapes of technical varieties so that they can also learn processing technology, after which they will also work on selling these products. The laboratory to be built is, in fact, a mini-factory where students can learn from practice how to run a business or how to work in a horticultural enterprise,” said Iurie Vîrlan, Communication Consultant of the “Fruit Garden” project.

In the spring of 2022, about 2 hectares of vines of technical varieties such as Fetească Regală, Viorica and Rara Neagră are planned to be planted. The decision to grow these varieties in particular was taken following consultations with wine sector specialists.

“We very much hope that as a result of these investments the institution will become more competitive on both the national and international markets. We would like the institution to attract as many students as possible and, why not, as it was in the past, also students from abroad,” said Iurie Brumărel, Executive Director of the Consolidated Unit for Implementing and Monitoring the Wine Sector Restructuring Programme.

The direct beneficiaries of the investments will be more than 300 students and 41 teachers from the Centre of Excellence in Viticulture and Winemaking in Chisinau.

“We have the opportunity, with the help of European money, to modernize the teaching base of the institution so that students learn not by hearing and not by seeing, but to participate in the whole technological process,” said Sergiu Zabolotny, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Viticulture and Winemaking in Chisinau.

Thanks to a long-term partnership, students and teachers will be guided by MOVCA representatives to learn more about modern technologies for growing and processing horticultural products according to organic standards.

Under the “Fruit Garden” project, the European Union through the European Investment Bank, with the support of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, is investing 12 million EUR to rehabilitate and equip 10 educational and research institutions.

Earlier, through the same project, important investments were made at the Technical University of Moldova and the State Agrarian University of Moldova. Here, renovation and modernization work cost a total of around 4 million EUR.