Bucharest, September 27, 2023 – “Țara mea” Integrated Agricultural Cooperative, the largest in Romania by turnover and number of members, delivered a ton of Romanian caviar this year and will start growing shrimp in its own factory in Timișoara.
The cooperative that includes 10,000 Romanian farmers, the only one with integrated activities from growing vegetables and raising animals to the production of dairy products, preserves, sausages, caviar, fish and grocery products, can process 10 tons of caviar per year in the fish farm and the processing factory in Timișoara. With 2 production lines, one for large-caliber fish and another for small-caliber fish, packaging area, smoking and storage rooms, the factory can process 100 tons of fish produced from its own carp, bream and sturgeon breeding farm finished per month, i.e. 1200 tons annually. “If we also add fresh fish, we can deliver over 4,000 tons of fish per year. In 2020, Romania produced 20,000 tons of fish, so this factory alone would represent more than 20% of the country’s production, which would now represent an increase of 20%. In terms of caviar, production is lower, there are less than 10 breeding farms in Romania, of which more than 80% are exported. I believe in Romanian production, I think we can orientate ourselves in such a way as to cover the demand for caviar from Romania with Romanian product and export the rest, not the other way around as is happening at the moment,” explained Florin Burculescu, president of the Integrated Agricultural Cooperative ” Tara mea”.
Romanian shrimps. Tara mea Cooperative will start production soon
The Cooperative’s factory in Timișoara covers an area of approximately 6 hectares and includes 2 main areas: the growth and reproduction area and the processing area, where “Tara mea” will start the first pilot shrimp breeding project in Romania.
According to local media, in 2013, the sturgeon farm in Timisoara was the largest in Romania and one of the largest in Europe.
“Romanians have become big consumers of seafood recently, shrimp consumption has doubled in the last 4 years, so why import when we can produce in our country? I have been studying the phenomenon for almost 1 year, since I saw the potential of this segment, so from October I will bring the first shrimp larvae to start acclimatization in Romania. It is a complex and painstaking process, because we need constant water and air temperatures, which we can control in the interior area, and at the end of October we will do the first accommodation tests, Burculescu says.
The “Tara Mea” Integrated Agricultural Cooperative was founded in 2014 by a group of vegetable growers from Olt county who wanted to sell their goods together in the big chain stores. A year later, it turned into an integrated agricultural cooperative with the aim of creating a short technological and commercial chain in favor of the members of the cooperative, and in 2016 the brand “Tara mea” became present in all locations of the Kaufland store chain with a range wide range of products. Later, the Cooperative expanded its partnerships with other retailers including Carrefour or Penny.
