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At 26 years old, the entrepreneur Ionel Burtea achieves a turnover of 6 million euros from the sale of fresh fruit

At the age of 26, Ionel Burtea runs an agricultural business worth 6 million euros from the sale of fresh fruit, he has ongoing investments with European funds of 2 million euros in agricultural machinery, storage spaces, the construction of greenhouses in protected areas and agritourism, and next year he plans to list his company, Abund Berry, on the Stock Exchange, in order to attract the necessary capital to increase local production.

 

Story Abund Berry

At 21 years old, student at ASE, Ionel Burtea decided to start a business in agriculture. With an initial budget of 20,000 euros, he starts growing blackberries on 1 ha of land and involves his family in the business – his grandfather, parents and sister. The decision to launch the forest fruit business was made after a careful research of the market, in which problems were identified with the availability of Romanian fruits in supermarkets, as well as the lack of a range of wines with novel and unconventional flavors. In fact, the passion for wines was the basis for launching the business in 2017.

Over time, the area cultivated with blackberries increases, and the young farmer decides to also cultivate raspberries and strawberries, so that today, Ionel Burtea together with his family manages a total area of 20 hectares cultivated with blackberries, raspberries and strawberries in Țicleni, in Gorj county. The fruits grown in Țicleni are sold under their own brand, Abund Berry.

"In college I decided to launch a business in agriculture because I had this dream, to do something for and with my family, for the area where I grew up, to be able to offer Romanians locally produced forest fruits, to be able to create jobs and attract young people to stay at home, not to go out. My family and I have a passion for wines, this was the driving force and idea behind the business. I discovered that blackberry or blueberry wine specialties have a taste and a special aroma, that they can complement the offer of grape wines on the Romanian market. We started producing blackberry wine in 2017, we launched the Berry Wine / ALAI brand which can be found in our partners' networks", declares Ionel Burtea, the founder of the Abund Berry business.

 

Abund Berry in numbers

• 6 million euros in turnover
• Investments of 2 million euros through European projects
• 20 ha cultivated with blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries
• A 1000 sqm warehouse in Buftea
• 5 supermarket chains where Abund Berry fruit is distributed
• More than 30 Romanian farmers from whom fruit is bought
• More than 20 permanent employees and 20 seasonal workers

 

Business partnerships

Since the beginning of the business launch, Ionel Burtea aimed to distribute his fruits in as many supermarkets as possible and to collaborate with companies in the HoReCa field. In order to ensure the supply of fresh fruit all year round, the young farmer decided to expand his business and the assortments offered to his partners in 2020. In this sense, he begins to buy blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, plums, peaches, nectarines and strawberries from growers in Romania and to import fruit from the Netherlands, Peru, Chile, Poland, Argentina, Spain, Portugal.

"I am personally involved in the collaboration with the farmers in Romania, I visit the farms and check the fruits, their quality and appearance before deciding to purchase them and sell them on to our partners. I travel over 50,000 km every year, all over the country, to reach the partner farmers or to meet other farmers. Abund Berry is one of the main fresh fruit distributors for Mega Image, Carrefour, Profi, Metro. The requirements we have to meet are very rigorous, for this reason we pay attention to the selection of the suppliers we work with, to ensure optimal storage and transport conditions", declares Ionel Burtea, the young entrepreneur from Gorj.

 

Record in 2022

This year, Abund Berry set a fruit sales record by delivering more than 1000 tons of local and imported fruit to supermarkets, including more than 100 tons of raspberries. Ionel Burtea explains why it is a significant figure and what it means to sell 100 tons of raspberries.

"One hundred tons of raspberries means 800,000 boxes of 125g, which my team prepares for sale, checks, sorts, labels, loads them into crates and then into trucks. It's a meticulous process that requires attention and a certain rhythm, given that approximately 40 people are involved in this flow. If we do the calculation further, we deliver approximately 2,200 casseroles with raspberries daily to our customers. And to this figure are added the other fruits that are checked, packaged, labeled and delivered. Our effort is very high, according to the demand", Ionel Burtea appreciates.

 

The challenges of the pandemic. Focus on solutions

The pandemic brought with it new challenges and changes for which Ionel Burtea had to find solutions and make decisions to move forward.

Before the pandemic, the farmer attended fairs and various industry events to present his products and look for new business partners. In addition to the collaboration with Romanian supermarkets, an important sales channel for the company was grocers, restaurants and other HoReCa partners. Ionel Burtea had an ongoing project with European funds, a greenhouse for strawberries at the construction stage, as well as an investment of his own in tourism.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains, many HoReCa businesses have been affected, some of them have even closed. The young farmer compensated for the decrease in turnover on this channel by selling online, which increased significantly by allocating the necessary resources – online shop, online advertising, newsletters, dedicated team, specific logistics.

Another decision was to stop the project from tourism and wait to see how the field stabilizes, what are the requirements from the authorities, the expectations from the customers, where and how it is necessary to reposition, review the services offered and the resources needed to relaunch this project.

As for the projects with European funds, they benefited from the support of the national authorities (AFIR), but the farmer encountered problems with the supply of machinery, processing equipment and construction materials from suppliers in Italy or Spain.

 

Future plans

Ionel Burtea continues to follow the growth of the business and in this sense decided to list the company on the stock exchange next year in order to attract the necessary capital, with which to support the expansion of the local production activity.

For 2023, the young farmer proposed a turnover of 10 million euros and the submission of a project on Horizon, a funding line directly from the European Commission.

In his opinion, a trend is developing in agriculture in the direction of business to consumer, directly from producer to consumer, with increasing demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, local products being preferred, although they still do not have a large share on supermarket shelves.

Ionel Burtea is following the completion of the strawberry greenhouse, a project accessed on Submeasure 4.1a – fruit growing, establishment of strawberry greenhouses, processing and storage unit. The value of the project is 1.4 million euros including VAT, the targeted area is 4,560 square meters, and the technical area is 528 square meters. 90% are European funds, while the own contribution is 10%.

 

About Ionel Burtea

Ionel Burtea graduated from the Faculty of International Economic Relations within the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. His own business was the subject of his bachelor's thesis, during which he learned to make a business plan that was useful to him when writing the European projects for which he applied.

Passionate about personal development and entrepreneurship books since adolescence, Ionel launched his own business at the age of 21 and is constantly concerned with its development and consolidation, through solutions adapted to agriculture and modern management principles.

Ionel Burtea is interested in the community where he grew up and the role of young people in driving change in local culture, in Romanian society, and in this sense he organizes TEDx Conferences in Tg. Jiu starting in 2019, to which he invites, as speakers, Romanians with success stories to inspire young people.

 

Press herefor English press release.

 

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