Metallic components producer branches into fruit

Encouraged by its financial performance in the last few years, Bistrita-based Miro SA, a producer of metallic components, decided to diversify its business and has settled on the fruit growing sector. The company has taken out a 50-year lease for 170 ha of orchard, only 40 ha of which are currently productive. “I hope we’ll reach 100% profitability over the next four or five years and I expect output to stand at 5,000-6,000 tonnes of fruit a year, to be sold both on the domestic and international market,” Ioan Magadan, owner and manager of the business told Ziarul Financiar. The two million-euro investment is backed by SAPARD funds and by the company’s own funds. Miro logged $8.2 million in turnover last year, up 24% from 2002 and anticipates to reach $12 million in 2004. ZF