It’s a warm Saturday morning in May. The twenty two year old Gheorghe Lozovanu is working in the yard of his parents house. There are rows after rows of strawberries. The fields are still green, but in some spots the red fruit is popping out.

Strawberries are everything for Lozovanu. “You cannot have too many of them,” he smiles. “Everybody wants to eat our strawberries. In our village, we are famous.” He takes a small plate and finds the biggest and the best.

But the love for strawberries is not the most interesting thing about Gheorghe Lozovanu. In a country where a quarter of the workforce is abroad, it’s hard to find someone who has made a clear decision to stay in Moldova.

Staying in Moldova

The reason for Lozovanu to stay is simple, but at the same time complicated. “It doesn’t feel good to leave my country,” he says. He takes his time and starts to think about it. “It is a feeling which is hard to describe. This is my country, these are my roots.”

“When you leave Moldova, you can’t really contribute to the development of the country,” he believes. Although one third of the country’s GDP are remittances, experts say the money that is sent back, is not invested into the society. Lozovanu agrees. “The money they earned in Italy is put into the house, or a car.”

But that doesn’t mean he blames his fellow Moldavians for leaving. “Everybody in this country dreams of a good life and many believe they can find it in another country. It is true you can make much more money abroad. But it takes more to have a good life. For example being close to your family and friends.”

The village is my home

Lozovanu was born and raised in the village of Lozova. A wide spread village 45 kilometers northwest of the capital Chisinau. It is located between green hills filled with vineyards and young barley. A fresh valley wind sweeps the branches of the willows in front of the house. Like his family name, the village originates from these trees which you find everywhere in the region.

This is home for Lozovanu. For no price does he want to live somewhere else. During his agriculture study he spent a few months in Great Britain. “At the moment I entered the plane, I knew that this wasn’t right.”

Improving business

So after his study, he decided to improve the situation and took a more commercial stand on the strawberry fields of his parents. “On the countryside everybody believes they are an expert. But they aren’t really. Things just go as they always went. My parents never studied how to grow strawberries. They just did it.”

Lozovanu takes an other approach. “For example I experiment with different races, bigger ones then we normally have here in Moldova. People are not used to them, but they love them.” He also invests time in studying about his product. “I read books about the best way to grow them. If you want to improve things, you have to study. I think it’s the key to everything.”

Lozovanu dreams of improving his business even more. Last year he applied for a US fund to create an irrigation system, but he didn’t get it. “There are limited amount of funds, and in our region some other projects received the money.” Another thing he loves to have is a greenhouse, so he isn’t dependent on the seasons and can work all year long.

Fear for corruption

But at the moment Lozovanu isn’t that keen on making his strawberry business much bigger. The reason for this is the fair amount of corruption in the country. According to the World Economic Forum this is after the difficulties of getting finance, the biggest factors why people are not investing in Moldova.

“Right now the government leaves us alone. We only have half a hectare of ground and we sell our products on the market in Chisinau. Nobody wants any money from us. But if your business grows, people will see money. At that moment everybody wants their share.”