Summary

The family-owned Ruupa forestry nursery (Ruupa Puukool OÜ) provides private forest owners in Estonia with locally-produced forest plants. Seeds had previously been sown manually by the nursery but this made the sowing process time-consuming and labour-intensive. It could also result in an inconsistent quality of seedlings. LEADER helped co-finance the purchase of modern sowing machinery to address these productivity issues.

Results

Positive business benefits from the CAP funding involved reduced manual labour, shorter sowing time, improved plant quality, and an increase in the percentage of germinated seeds.

Wider positive benefits included less use of consumables and a reduced need for imported forest plants and seedlings.