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Macedonian Quality Wines Succeed in
Polish Market
 The
sunny and mountainous Republic of Macedonia is a
centuries-old pro-ducer of some of the Balkan
region’s best wines. Wine production in
Macedonia dates back to ancient times.
Outstanding vineyard elevations and a very
favorable and sunny climate enable Macedonia to
produce great grapes, the required starting
point for outstanding wines. Macedonian wineries
carefully merge the wonderful natural advantages
of the country with modern winemaking technology
to produce the indigenous variety ‘Vranec”, as
well the other local and international
varieties. The intense aromas of Macedonian
wines are the result of the combined influence
of Mediterranean and continental climates, plus
plenty of warm summer days and cool nights. When
experts are asked to describe the wines produced
by Macedonian winemakers, the most frequent
answer is “fruit-forward”. Macedonian wines are
inviting, pleasant and delicate.
 USAID
recognized Macedonia’s potential for marketing
its high quality wine, and the need for
improving presentations and awareness of the
wineries in regional and international markets.
To help wineries achieve this objective, AgBiz
provides a range of support services to
Macedonian wineries to help them enter new
export markets and enhance their market share in
existing international markets. In recognition
the quality of its products and its marketing
plans, AgBiz awarded a US$40,026 grant to Popova
Kula to help implement an extensive market entry
program for the Polish market, and thereby
significantly expand their exports of bottled
wine.
After registration of “Popova Kula Polska” AgBiz
support helped Popova Kula promote a range of
their wines at the “Enoexpo” fair in Krakow,
where they met number of distributors and
started the process of sales negotiations. AgBiz
also supported Popova Kula wine sampling event
during the trade fair that achieved wide and
positive media coverage.
AgBiz helped Popova Kula construct
www.popovakula.com.mk/pol to improve Polish
consumers access to information about the
company’s wines, and an advertizing campaign in
“Swiat Vin” and “Magazine Wino”, very
respectable Polish wine magazines. All these
activities resulted in 16,000 bottles of Popova
Kula wines being shipped to Poland.
Thanks to USAID’s AgBiz Program support, just
seven months after launching their Polish market
entry program Popova Kula wines are on the
shelves in Kaufland, Zabka, Hala Banaha, Pjotor
and in Pavl retail chains throughout the
country. This is proof that a well planned and
aggressive market entry program can be
successful.
“We’ve managed to successfully enter a new
market! And this is just the beginning! We
anticipate a significant market share increase
based on the quality of our products and our
ongoing marketing program. Thanks to the support
provided by USAID, we are able to implement the
type of professional marketing and promotional
campaign that is essential to successfully enter
and sustain our success in the large and growing
Polish market!”, said Mr. Jordan Trajkov, CEO of
Popova Kula.
Popova Kula is one of the three wineries out of
the 19 Macedonian agribusi-nesses that received
export-focused business expansions grants from
USAID’s AgBiz Program.
AgBiz also provided technical assis-tance to
Popova Kula to list their wines in UK websites
that resulted in new on-line sales of Popova
Kula wines, and supported Popova Kula to exhibit
at the prestigious “ProWein” wine trade fair in
Dusseldorf, Germany.
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