The entrepreneur “baking” her green future

Even though she is a teacher by profession and had become a high school director, five years ago she left her job to open a restaurant in Cotiujenii Mari village, Șoldănești district.

"I was director of high school and thought I could successfully combine both activities. It was hard, but I had to leave teaching and high school to realize my dream. I started building the restaurant in 2017 and in 2019 we started the business," the entrepreneur remembers. 

Over time, the Comendant family also opened an agri-touristic pension, then bought a few more old houses, besides the restaurant and pension. Now the entrepreneur is planning to rebuild the houses while preserving their authenticity.

"I started the business out of my passion for cooking, but also from necessity. We wanted to invest the money in such a way that it would ensure our subsistence. In addition to the restaurant and pension we planted orchards and continue to invest," says Angela.

The most popular room in the restaurant is the bread and pastry room. Here the entrepreneur can spend hours. With fruit from her own orchards, she produces both fruit bread and pastries.

"Our biggest problem is the heating system. The area where the restaurant and guesthouse are located is not connected to the natural gas grid and the heating system is connected to electricity. We heat the spaces from October to March and the bills for the last two years have been enormous," says the entrepreneur. 

The entrepreneur found out about the UNDP project "Emergency support for agri-producers in the context of socio-economic, climate and energy crisis", participated in the announced funding competition and got support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) to purchase a 33 kW biomass boiler, a wood shredder and a pelletizer. This will reduce her electricity bills to zero.

"We have orchards and every spring after pruning the trees, the branches would end up in the trash. Thanks to this new equipment, we will be able to use the waste from the orchard to heat the restaurant. In this way, we will be heating in an eco-friendly way without huge bills," says the producer. 

In addition to the financial support, the entrepreneur received mentoring and training.

"They guided us on how to choose the right boiler to heat the whole restaurant. They consulted real specialists and it was very helpful," says Angela Comendant. 

UNDP and its partners are empowering women agricultural entrepreneurs to implement renewable energy transition solutions and apply energy efficient technologies.