The online platform IarmarEco is focused on helping small producers of organic fruits and vegetables and their processed products in the marketing process as well as promoting social and environmental initiatives. The official launch of the platform is scheduled for February 21 and, offline, the ceremony will be held in the building of ARTICO: Republican Center for Children and Youth.
The IarmarEco platform was developed by EcoVisio, a non-governmental organization with financial support from the Entrepreneurship Academy, founded by the EFSE Foundation under the EU4Business initiative and the LED Moldova Foundation (Liechtenstein Development Service). The platform is being financially supported by ERIM (formerly IREX Europe) within the COVID-19: Civil Society Resilience and Resilience project.
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The launch of the platform coincided with the decision of the National Emergency Commission on Public Health of Moldova to extend until mid-April and tighten restrictions due to the increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus in the country. For local producers of greenhouse vegetables and berries, this was an alarming signal.
In the spring and early summer of last year, farmers were hit particularly hard by the lockdown. Some found a solution in forming a client-base through announcements on websites developed by industry associations because of COVID-19 restrictions as well as on social networks. For a month and a half to two months, Moldova had a rather active system of scheduled product deliveries by farmers to micro districts of Chisinau and large cities as well as to the home by delivery services. However, the process of expanding the system ran into economic constraints since the minimum order size in physical and/or monetary terms was usually not less than 5 kg and $25-30. As the self-isolation requirements relaxed and fixed agri-food markets reopened, both sellers and buyers quickly returned.
The use of the site materials is free if there is a direct and open for search engines hyperlink to a specific publication of the East-Fruit.com website.
