Macedonia Agribusiness Grantees Plan to Expand Export Sales
On October 3, 2008, USAID’s AgBiz Program held its second Grant Agreements Signing Ceremony for Macedonian agribusinesses working in the wine, fresh vegetable, table grapes, and wild gathered product value chains. USAID’s ten grant agreements with Macedonian agribusinesses will deliver more than $220,000 of AgBiz support to projects totaling $4.6 million. The projects will help recipients expand their exports of bottled wine, fresh vegetables, table grapes and wild gathered products and are projected to result in increased export sales of over US$58 million by the end of 2010.
Examples of the projects include improving the capacity and adding value to table grapes by installing new lines for packaging grapes and equipment for making cardboard boxes; supporting companies to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards; finding new markets in Balkan and European Union countries; training company personnel; purchasing and installing new equipment including a chiller and heat exchanger for fresh vegetables; constructing facilities for storing oak barrels that will be used for producing premium wines; and, assisting businesses to modernize their post harvest handling technologies.
“Signing this grant agreement today means starting implementation of a project that will increase exports, stimulate value-added product sales, and create new jobs at our company,” said Toshe Kostadinov, owner of Intermak, a wild gathered products processing company.
The goal of the AgBiz Program is to enable agribusinesses to identify, understand and sustainably enter export markets for value-added products; enhance market linkages between producers, processors and traders; improve business management, operations and competiveness; achieve greater incomes for agricultural producers and processors; and create new employment opportunities.
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| The ten AgBiz grantees were joined by USAID Mission Director, Michael Fritz and AgBiz Program staff at the second grants agreement signing in Macedonia on October 3. The grants provide support for projects which will help bottled wine, fresh vegetable, table grapes and wild gathered product agribusinesses expand their exports. |
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