Nutritional bars from Ungheni—more and more sought after on the Romanian market

"We started as honey producers and along the way we decided to focus on a more specialized niche of products containing honey, and that's how we decided to produce nutritional bars," says Ion Dulgheru, the administrator of this business.

From the beginning, the bars were produced by hand in the kitchen at home, and after the Dulgheru family obtained a grant in Romania, they moved their business there.

"I produced these bars for three years in Romania in slightly more automated conditions than in the kitchen at home, but approximately 90% of the product was made by hand," notes Ion Dulgheru.

In 2021, Ion Dulgheru decided to end his commute from Romania and move to Moldova for good, where he obtained a grant worth 30,000 euros through the "EU4Moldova: Focal Regions" programme, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP and UNICEF. The money is being directed towards the purchase of a packaging line, large-capacity mixer and cold rooms.

This investment allowed him to increase capacity from 2,000 bars per month to 2,000 per day.

Ion has already managed to make the first export to Romania and in the future intends to access other European markets.