Carrefour Romania launches farming cooperative

Carrefour Romania has just launched the Vărăști Carrefour Farming Cooperative – a first for the country. It is the first cooperative of its kind to be supported by a retailer. The initiative bridges the gap between Romanian customers and farmers, selling extremely high-quality products and establishing a more equitable relationship between all the parties involved. And in this way, Carrefour Romania is contributing both in the mid-term and in the long-term to the development of the country's agricultural sector.

The Vărăști Farming cooperative is less than 30 km from Bucharest and extends over 60 ha (including 15 ha of solaria), with annual production of some 5000 tonnes of vegetables. These include tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, courgettes, beans, aubergines, cabbages, celery, onions, garlic, dill, parsley, lovage, spinach, orache, wild garlic, nettles, radishes, fresh onions, fresh garlic and astrantia. The Cooperative brings together vegetables grown by 80 families of farmers from the local region. Customers will find products grown by the Cooperative throughout the Carrefour Group's store network in Romania.

To ensure that the vegetables and plant products produced by the Cooperative get to customers as quickly as possible, Carrefour has built a 300 m² warehouse in Vărăști in which local farmers can store their produce. From there, the vegetables are transported to the central warehouse and then distributed to Carrefour stores throughout the country. Carrefour has also provided these farmers with plastic, foldable crates which are returnable. This means they no longer have to purchase cardboard or wooden ones each time. Furthermore, the price labels on the shelves will include details of where the products have come from. This way, customers can play a part in the commercial chain, choosing to directly support the Vărăști Carrefour Farming Cooperative through the purchases they make.

source: carrefour.com