SCHOOL FOR PROFESSIONALS – A PRACTICAL SEMINAR FOR SPECIFIC PEANUT GROWERS.

On March 15, a seminar-workshop for hazelnut growers was held on the basis of FILBERT NGO (Odesa region, Bilyaivskyi district, Paliivka village).

Back in May of last year, showing the "fresh", freshly poured foundation of the future processing hazelnut plant, Maxim Sheyko, the general director of FILBERT NGO, confidently promised to hold a practical seminar of the Nut Association next year (read - in 2024) on the basis of operating plant.

And he fulfilled his own promise - on March 15, Maksym Sheyko, as a hospitable host, opened the doors of the modern processing plant to the participants of the practical seminar.

The format of the meeting was chosen - small (up to 25-30 specialists), working, in which hazelnut growers who already have commercial hazelnut orchards and gained first experience in their maintenance took part.

Therefore, managers and specialists of industrial hazelnut orchards from Volyn and Lviv, from Zhytomyr region and Kyiv came to visit a modern enterprise with a completely completed cycle of industrial hazelnut cultivation, its primary technological processing, further processing and production of finished confectionery products of its own production under its own trademark FLARINO. from Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk regions and other regions of Ukraine.

The practical seminar was opened by the organizers of the seminar-workshop - the president of the Ukrainian Walnut Association Hennadiy Yudin and the head of the ITS project in Ukraine Alyona Kolomoytseva, who in their speeches outlined the current state of activity of the Walnut Association, especially in the issues of promoting legislative changes necessary for the nut industry to the current state support programs, increasing the effectiveness of the positioning and promotion of Ukrainian nuts on world markets within the framework of the ITS project "Promoting the exit of SMEs of the fruit and vegetable sector to foreign markets and their inclusion in value-added chains", further steps to create a sustainable international image for the nut industry of Ukraine.

Later, the chief agronomist of FILBERT company Natalya Day revealed the secrets of her own agronomic experience of growing an industrial garden. Knowledge in combination with foreign practices, with own production experience and stuffed "cones" made it possible to improve the technological map of garden maintenance. The garden uses a "smart" system of drip irrigation together with fertigation, with controlled soil retention technology, which ensures high-quality nutrition of the root system and the development of the above-ground part. On 7 experimental hectares, the technology of growing hazelnuts on a trellis is being developed, which is especially attractive for small plots.

And so far, years of work have paid off - the industrial garden impresses with its care, professional technological approach, slender benches of hazelnut varieties Tonda Di Giffoni, Romano, Tonda Gentile delle Langhe, Mortarella, Nocchione pleased with the harvested hazelnut harvest.

Therefore, real examples of the use of technologies in accordance with the developed technological map, intelligent drip irrigation and fertigation control systems, agricultural methods of protection - these topics did not leave anyone indifferent, caused many questions and a lively discussion.

And the "highlight" of the practical seminar - the full cycle of the primary processing of hazelnuts on existing equipment was shown by the head of the enterprise Maksym Sheyko.

Therefore, the participants of the seminar paid special attention to the modern hazelnut processing plant, which was built taking into account the experience of factories in Italy, Turkey, America, and Georgia. Maksym Sheyko and his specialists personally visited these factories in order to summarize the best experience and use the best and most reliable equipment. And after visiting equipment manufacturing plants, Maksym Sheyko ordered modern processing equipment for his plant in Italy and Turkey.

Together with domestic production enterprises, I developed a whole line of necessary processing equipment, which, currently already in working order, continues to be improved.

Currently, Maksym Sheyko, as the First Vice-President of the Ukrainian Nut Association and at the same time as the head of the high-tech enterprise FILBERT, continues to cooperate with the venerable Italian manufacturer "FACMA" on the improvement of equipment for Ukraine. At the invitation of well-known manufacturers from Turkey, he visited the production sites of their factories.

The current state of the global nut market is characterized by the growth of consumer demands and needs, the strengthening of the competitive positions of other nut countries, therefore, the formation of a BRAND of high-quality hazelnuts from commercial orchards is currently an important task for Ukrainian nut growers. And for this, there should be a line of operational high-quality processing equipment in Ukraine.

Maxim Sheyko, already based on his own production experience, spoke in detail about the features of processing different varieties of hazelnuts, their advantages and disadvantages at various stages of technological processing: drying, splitting, blanching, etc., and clearly showed different varieties of hazelnuts after their technological processing. This is extremely IMPORTANT for all future owners of industrial gardens to know at the stage of making a decision about the varietal composition of the future industrial garden.

He spoke frankly about the peculiarities of hazelnut pricing, about the "pitfalls" in hazelnut processing and its further implementation, and about the possibilities of cooperation.

He told about the next production link of the further processing of hazelnuts - a new confectionary production enterprise, which was also recently built and has already gained momentum in the production of hazelnut delicacies, which are supplied to the retail chains "Silpo", "Epicentr", "Ashan", "Tavria", "Kopyka" and others. For the production of high-quality products of this enterprise, the confectionery equipment of the well-known Italian manufacturer MIA FOOD TECH was purchased, and for the promotion of hazelnut confectionery products, its own trademark FLARINO was registered.

Maksym Sheyko's sincere story, his frankness caused a lively discussion and numerous questions from the participants. Communication, an informal friendly exchange of ideas about future plans, about the development of Ukrainian hazelnut production, its processing and sales, promotion to foreign markets continued after the end of the seminar.

Shaking Maksym's strong hand before leaving, he was pleased to think that the Ukrainian Walnut Association is talented in high-class specialists and reliable cooperation partners.

...There is an ancient and wise saying - "THOSE WHO WALK OVERCOME THE ROAD".

Join us - let's go together!

President of the Ukrainian Nut Association G. Yudin