Cornelia Ungurean from Romania is another finalist of the “EYE Entrepreneur of the Decade” Award.

Cornelia is a biotechnology engineer who recently started a food oil product company. She applied for the programme to know how a similar business operates in another country. She thus spent almost three months on the island of Lesbos (Greece), at the end of 2017, to collaborate with Kostantinos Artakianos (owner of Modousa Cooperative) and learn about the olive oil production process.

During the exchange, Cornelia took part in various activities which included the olive harvesting, visiting the olive oil factory and the laboratory to see how the olive oil is tested. She also had the chance to develop a new innovative product for the cooperative. Yet for her the most important part of the exchange was the sharing of knowledge with fellow entrepreneurs and scientists about various aspects of her startup.

Back in Romania, Cornelia developed her business further using oils obtained from sunflowers and succeeded in creating four new products! Cornelia is also already selling her oils through fairs and specific sectoral networks and is about to launch her online shop (foreseen for December 2019).