Can you have a successful business in Romania?
Well, we believe the answer is yes. And who says happy endings are just for movies? Let us share with you a story that has all the right ingredients for success: good products, good people, good strategies. The result was inevitable: good business!
By the way, if you wish to explore yourself agri-food business opportunities in Romania (and Bulgaria), you can easily do so by joining the business mission led by VNO-NCW to these countries in April 2019 https://vno-ncw.nl/agenda/ondernemersreis-bulgarije-roemenie
It all started in 1995 when two ambitious young men, Marius and Dan, visited the Netherlands and met Hans, the founder of Holland Farming BV in the Netherlands, at the home of a mutual friend.
Hans told Marius and Dan about CROPMAX, which he had recently developed. Although only one of them had a little experience in agriculture, they showed their enthusiasm. Hans on the other hand had a good feeling about these young and ambitious guys and before they knew it, they had a pallet of CROPMAX delivered on their doorstep.
Marius and Dan had little knowledge what to do with it and even considered sending back the pallet… Fortunately they gave some samples to agronomists in their social network. The samples were tried and the reactions were very positive. So Marius and Dan succeeded in slowly selling quantities to farms. A large and well-known winery was one of the first more serious customers.
Now being engaged in agriculture, the portfolio had to be increased to be able to supply the developing Romanian agricultural sector with more advanced inputs. Holland Farming BV in the Netherlands got Marius and Dan in contact with Dutch suppliers, such as PPZ Seeds and PV Seeds. Also Holland Farming BV obtained a minority share in the expanding Holland Farming Agro Romania. There was some financial support from Holland to handle growth, but the Holland Farming management managed to offer a good portfolio to the Romanian professional farmer. Bulbs by Royal van Zanten, Fertilizers from Scotts in Waardenburg and Atlantica, substrates from Jiffy and Novarbo, testing instruments from Step Systems and hybrid seeds from RijkZwaan. All this was done from a two story block of flats. When business expanded, a large warehouse was erected in the Militari district of Bucharest.
With the support of EU funding, an advanced Holland Farming laboratory was founded, where farmers can send soil and water samples for analysis and customers receive fertilisation advise. In 2014 Holland Farming Agro applied for a subsidy for the building of a 8,000 square metre greenhouse for the production and multiplication of seeds. The greenhouse was finally erected with advanced technology of Certhon in Poeldijk and is now fully operational. It is located in Stoienesti, some 30 km west of Bucharest.
Currently, Holland Farming Agro has more than 41 people on the payroll, 18 of which are active in the field – from Constanta in the east to Timisoara in the west and from Craiova in the south-west to Suceava in the north-east. The company is engaged in intensive farming (vegetable greenhouses and open field crops), extensive farming (cereals, soya, wheat and maize), but also ornamentals and sportsfields (Steaua, Craiova, Cluj, Rugby Federation and National Arena). But also in the supply of inputs to the fruit cultivation sector and the wine industry. Next to this, Holland Farming Agro has a long standing cooperation with companies in the Republic of Moldova.
Holland Farming BV now has similar cooperations with partners in West Africa, United States, Italy, Macedonia and Paraguay, but our Romanian partners were the first to guide us on how ventures like this had to be run. Yearly turnover of Holland Farming Agro is now over 12 mln euro.
After almost 25 years of cooperation CROPMAX is the number 1 biostimulant in Romania and Moldova. But more important, friendships have been built.
LAN – Bucharest team
19.03.2019
