CLUSTER ‘YABLUNEVYI SHLYAKH’ (‘APPLE WAY’),
SEVERYNIVKA AMALGAMATED COMMUNITY, UKRAINE
Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) Pioneer Project
CONTEXT
The amalgamated territorial community of Severynivka belongs to the Zhmerynskiy district of Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region. The community consists of 6 settlements, and is home to around 4,700 people. The driver of the local economy is the cultivation of cereals and industrial crops, and the development of meat and dairy cattle breeding is popular in the community. Severynivka has a sanatorium in the former palace of the landowner Severin Orlovskiy, whose grounds became Severynivskyi Park.
PROJECT GOAL AND OBJECTIVES
The Project’s main goal is to increase the added value of the “Podilske Yabluko” (“Podolian Apple”) regional brand by creating a “Yablunevyi Shlyakh” (“Apple Way”) cluster of sites in order to promote the Vinnytsia region and the Severynivka and Bar communities as Ukraine’s “apple paradise”. The Project will be run in Severynivka and Bar to achieve the following objectives:
1) To create a comprehensive tourist service and improve existing production, recreational and educational infrastructure within the “Apple Way” cluster;
2) To develop local business linkages by encouraging the creation of other clusters of companies, cooperating with each other in order to launch new, better and more affordable local products;
3) To promote the municipality as a good investment destination, popularize local products and services, and improve the knowledge of students, teachers and local entrepreneurs in the agricultural sphere.
PROJECT ACTIONS
The Project will involve renovating the cottage of Denis McClair (1762-1853, a famous Irish landscape gardener), an all-seasons greenhouse in Severynivka and the creation of a museum room in the cottage. To attract tourists, exotic varieties of apple and other horticultural crops (e.g. citrus) will be planted in the all-seasons greenhouse.
A two-day apple-based course of treatment will be designed and offered in one of the buildings of the Severynivskyi health resort, creating new medical services to improve the health of patients and visitors through the use of natural apple products. The Severynivskyi health resort occupies the premises of the former palace of the landowner Severin Orlovskiy around Severynivskyi Park. The entrances to the sanatorium will be equipped with ramps for people with disabilities.
A special tourist trail (the “Apple Way”) will be developed to familiarize international visitors with the apple industry and ecotourism in Ukraine. The trail will also include the services of a "cluster office" in the Bar community, which will be established as the centre of the "Apple Way" cluster of sites, and will include a tasting centre. Tourists will have the opportunity to taste directly pressed juice, smoothies and apple-based cocktails.
A nursery garden with traditional local varieties of apples will also be set up in the village of Antonivka near Bar, and will become the source of high-quality apple nursery plants for the cluster’s horticultural business and the wider region. A manufacturing unit of the Severynivske municipal enterprise will be re-organized to introduce apple processing and the production of apple crisps and apple juice. The Project’s actions include: 1. The museum of gardening history in the village of Oleksandrivka close to Severynivka will be modernized. In Soviet times, the museum/state farm was famous for its apple gardens; 2. An innovative learning centre will be established in the Chernyatynskyi College of the Vinnytsia National Agrarian University in the village of Chernyatyn near Severynivka in order to train students and young people in European horticulture and the cultivation of aromatic and resilient varieties of fruit crops.
ESTIMATED RESULTS
- 15 teachers / professors and 60 students will be trained on new technologies of horticulture; ·
- 40 local entrepreneurs will receive knowledge about new possibilities of self-employment through the development of ′green tourism′, souvenir production, development of agro-processing SMEs; ·
- 10 job places will be created in the newly established nursery-garden area; ·
- 50 visits will be organized to the villages of Bar and Zhmerynka districts of Vinnytsia region to collect local traditional varieties of apples.
The Project’s actions include:
1. The museum of gardening history in the village of Oleksandrivka close to Severynivka will be modernized. In Soviet times, the museum/state farm was famous for its apple gardens;
2. An innovative learning centre will be established in the Chernyatynskyi College of the Vinnytsia National Agrarian University in the village of Chernyatyn near Severynivka in order to train students and young people in European horticulture and the cultivation of aromatic and resilient varieties of fruit crops.
In terms of outcomes, the Project will facilitate the establishment and the development of existing agricultural and agro-processing SMEs within the cluster and in the wider region. New jobs will be created in the Severynivka and Bar amalgamated communities. Both communities will become key local economic drivers, and will be successful examples for other amalgamated territorial communities across Ukraine.
The pioneer project “Cluster “Yablunevyi Shlyakh” (‘Apple Way’)” is being implemented in Ukraine as part of the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) Initiative. The M4EG Initiative began to operate in January 2017 within the Eastern Partnership framework. Its overall goal is to help mayors and municipalities in Eastern Partnership countries to become active facilitators for economic growth and job creation at local levels. For more information, please visit www.m4eg.eu.
This project is funded by the European Union.
This publication was prepared within the framework of the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) Project. Its contents are the sole responsibility of its author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
