ORCHARDS

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The Orchards Project is a credit scheme through BAFI and consists of: (i) a 2-1/2 year tranche of Romanian investment commitments for 29,820 ha of new orchards; (ii) 19 modern fruit packing and controlled atmosphere cold storage facilities; and (iii) technical assistance to help improve fruit handling, storage, and processing and improve applied research for mechanization of fruit production and harvesting. The project will support the adoption of high density planting technology in Romania. The project will also support the Government's efforts designed to meet unsatisfied domestic demand for fresh fruit which has been hitherto suppressed due to shortage of local fruit with the Government keeping fruit imports to a minimum to conserve scarce foreign exchange. Incremental production resulting from the project will reach 528,000 tons annually. Per capita consumption of the types of fruit financed by the project will increase to 71 kgby 1988 from the present level of 36 kg. The project is also expected to create about 19,500 jobs in new orchards. There is a small risk that fruit yields or quality will be somewhat below expectations due to weather, lack of inputs or problems in orchard management. However, this will not depress the economic return on the project.