In the Odessa region, a Bessarabian farmer was the first in Ukraine to start making chips from watermelons and melons.
In the village of Safyany, Izmail region, the farmer Roman Dyazhuk is the owner of the Danube Agrarian Ltd, which is specialised in the production of organic products, including watermelons, melons and fruits on 2 thousand hectares.
This entrepreneur was already famous because he had the idea to grow watermelons in the shape of a cube and a heart.
The man did not stop with this product innovation and recently began to produce even more unusual products: fruit and berry chips.
They are made from environmentally friendly watermelons, two types of melons and plums. Chips are aromatic, crispy and very healthy, because they contain a large amount of vitamins and microelements. The sweetest are watermelon, melon sticks are distinguished by a special aroma, but there is sourness in plum chips. Sweetness is produced by sublimating (quickly and completely removing moisture) a fresh product: immediately frozen at temperatures below -40º, and then gradually heated in a vacuum. Thus, ice crystals do not pass into liquid, but into water vapor.
According to Roman Dyazhuk, there are already enterprises in Ukraine that produce chips from fruits, for example, from apples, but no one has yet made them from melons and watermelons. And the fact is that the production of chips by sublimation imposes on the manufacturer a large share of responsibility in the choice of raw materials. Indeed, traditionally grown in our country watermelons and melons contain a significant amount of nitrates and pesticides, and if the pulp of such melons is sublimated, the concentration of harmful substances will make the product hazardous to health.
So far, the farm does not have the necessary equipment for its own production of chips and therefore orders this service from a company from Chernomorsk. However, if the demand for this product is high enough, the company will install its own production line and will produce chips already on the spot, in Safiany.
They began to test fruit and berry plates back in the fall of last year: they found out which flavour consumers would like best, and also determined the most acceptable volume of the product. Ultimately, we settled on a 20-gram package. By the way, to obtain such a quantity of chips, 200 g of fresh raw materials are needed.
Chips themselves are very nutritious because they contain a lot of fructose. One package is enough for a full snack. By the way, two private Ukrainian educational institutions have already signed contracts with the farmer for the supply of valuable delicacies for children's nutrition.
We want people to be able to buy our watermelons and melons all year round, because they are healthy, and taking care of your health is in trend today. And then, chips are very convenient: you must admit that you won't get on a plane with a watermelon and you won't go on a date.
Roman Dyazhuk, owner of Danube Agrarian Ltd
His chips can now be purchased in supermarkets in Kyiv and at directly at the farm in the village of Safyany, as well as ordered by mail. In the near future, the company plans to open a specialised store with its own products. However, Roman Dyazhuk is not going to stop there, he plans to supply sweet chips for export. So, soon a traditional organic exhibition will take place in Nuremberg (Germany), in which the Danube Agrarian has been taking part for the past five years. This time the Bessarabian farmer will also show his new products, to promote them abroad.
Source and pictures: Dumskaya.net
