Agro-focus

How “Gourmet z Lyubimivki” organized its work during quarantine so that everyone could enjoy the fresh asparagus. Larisa Boden, co-founder of the farm explains.

"Gourmet z Lyubimivki" is the largest asparagus farm in Ukraine; over the past season its products were ordered by about 200 Ukrainian restaurants and cafes, including the First Line restaurants ("Favorite Uncle") and La Famiglia (Vino e Cucina, Bigoli, La Veranda), as well as BAO Modern Chinese Cuisine and Lucky Restaurant Vinoteque.

Co-founder Larissa Boden says the largest part of the farm's income comes from retail. And she calls restaurants “guides”, since there were the chefs who discovered the value of the product for the consumers. “Of course, we suffer losses due to the closure of restaurants. We are trying to compensate these volumes by online sales and deliveries. Trucks that used to take fresh asparagus to Kyiv restaurants and supermarkets, now deliver it to consumers,” explains Larissa Boden.

In addition, during the quarantine period, Gourmet z Lyubimivki increased its distribution network. The farm used to work only with FreshMart, now asparagus can be ordered for delivery from GoodWine, Silpo, Novus and Metro, as well as from Winetime, Myastoria, FermerGreen and Citron shops.