Marius Tunduc, President of the National Federation of Pigeon Breeders in Romania: “people must learn to promote themselves”

10 February 2020

Marius Tunduc is President of the National Federation of Pigeon Breeders of Romania (FNCPR) since 2014, previously serving as Chairman of the Sports Commission. Meantime, Marius Tunduc also holds the position of Vice-President of the FCI – Federation Colombophile Internationale.

MarathonPigeons.com: What are the notable achievements of FNCPR in recent years?

Marius Tunduc: The biggest achievement in the history of the Federation is certaintly the National Ranking Program, and for this achievement, technology was the most important thing that helped us, becouse 20 years ago it didn’t exist.

Another important achievement of the FNCPR is the increase of the pigeon fanciers numbers in Romania at an extremely high level, both from the point of the competitions safetyness, and from the point of the pigeons fanciers interest for this, the transition to live systems, that makes everything more attractive and more interactive.

Gold Club is another successful project so far, which gives the pigeon fanciers the opportunity to earn money from their passion.

And we should not forget the 8 National stages that we have reached at the moment, marathon competitions, which honestly keep us all very concentrated, in the summer, during the competitions.

MarathonPigeons.com: What goals did you set for the next period on behalf of the Federation?

Marius Tunduc: Two very important years await us, because in the autumn we organize the FCI World Championships, after which we organize the Olympics, in Bucharest, in January, that will be the reference moment of the Romanian pigeon breeders.

It is the first time the Olympics is organized in Romania and it is an extraordinary opportunity to enter the big league, both for us, as an image of the country, but especially for the pigeon fanciers, for the champions, for all those who in one way or another will be present there.

It will be the event with the highest visibility at the world level that has ever existed in Romania.

We should all be focused to take full advantage of this opportunity: we as a Federation, pigeon traders, product traders, everyone who is involved in one way or another in the pigeonhole, will now have the opportunity to be extraordinary.

More over, our champions, will have the opportunity to have not only Olympic lots, but also the National Top 10, the National Exhibition, alongside the Olympic pigeons, in the same room, and we hope, over 10,000 visitors from all over the world, who will come and see by themselves how Romanian pigeon breeding is happening.
It is a moment not to be missed by anyone.
From 1937, the first time the pigeon breeding appeared in Romania as an official movement, we can say that now it is at its top. (If the politicians have managed to miss all the important goals in the last 30 years, we are not allowed to miss now.)
In 2022 we organize the European Exhibition in Romania.

As future projects, for the time that I will be President, I very much wish to strengthen the pigeon growers community in Romania, becoming a real family and bringing as many people and companies inside the Federation to help us achieve our purposes. I want to become more professional in social media and in everything that means visual identity, rebranding.

Meantime, I want to go out with all our strengths and succeed in our actions to help the pigeon growers become known and why not, help them to benefit financially from their passion.

At the same time, of course, we pay attention to the actions that normally take place in our country, the supervision of the Championship, the supervision of competitions, the highest safety measures. Starting with this year, absolutely all the boardings will be live filmed in all categories of competition.
Important steps are being taken. From this point of view, we are no. 1 in Europe, which is translated in technology and the use of technology for the benefit of pigeon growers and pigeons.

MarathonPigeons.com: How do you see the evolution of pigeon breeding in Romania?

Marius Tunduc: We are still on an upward trend. If we refer to the history of organizations, generally, ascending periods are followed by descending periods, and so on. For now, we are still on this upward trend and we hope to keep it as much as possible, from all points of view.

I would like very much that all our breeders who want to sell pigeons, who want to do more than a hobby and a passion, to step into the field of professionalism, to learn what trade means in general, to learn how to promote themselves on all channels.

Trading has the same rules, whether we are talking about pigeons or anything else. You have to know how to sell yourself, especially when you come from Eastern Europe or Romania, you need to know how to sell yourself.

I think that these two events that are approaching and the awareness we will have internationally, both will greatly help the pigeon fanciers who want to step outside.

If you saw us at the Exhibition, this year and in previous years, we have pigeons from Poland and Croatia who come regularly, with a sale stand. The one from Croatia (Derby Brod) sells at Fugare a young pigeon from a couple made up of a Croatian pigeon and a female champion from Romania. It is the best example of a foreigner who takes our birds and sells them to us, and we are not yet able to do so. And Croatia is a country with 600 pigeon growers, therefore I have all the respect for it.

Selling and going abroad means participating at fairs, exhibitions, some investment, renting a stand, making a catalog, all of them helps you become known. But the market is very big in Europe, not only in China, where we all dream achieving, and the world is conquered step by step.

MarathonPigeons.com: What is the Federation’s contribution on promoting pigeon breeders abroad?

Marius Tunduc: The basic actions of the Federation should target all pigeon fanciers, not just the champions. I know there is a trend, everybody talks about what the Federation is doing. The Federation does many things that may not be seen, starting from the Champions Gala, to everything that happens about the Championship.
Apart from what is seen here, there are many other actions that we mark whenever we have the opportunity. We were present with catalogs about Romanian Pigeon Breeding, about what is happening in Romania, in China, at the fairs and exhibitions we attended as a Federation.
There are some people in Romania who create and maintain a very good image through what they do, maybe as investments, maybe as friendships, networking, and we try to create a good and positive image for Romania, according to the possibilities we have. But this is an overview, the Federation does not individually promote a certain pigeon fancier and it is not normal to do so.
Those breeders who want to make a way of living from their pigeons, must take steps in this direction. We help them with everything we can, but we cannot make the steps on behalf of them. They must learn to promote themselves, to sell their products.

MarathonPigeons.com: What should a Romanian pigeon grower do in order to become known in the highly developed countries in the pigeon growing?

Marius Tunduc: There is no market for us in the West, this issue is false. A Belgian or a Dutchman will never buy from us. They generally don’t buy much, they trade with each other, but they know how to sell very well. In contrast, the very good market is in the East: Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romanians must learn marketing skills, to sell.
Two weeks ago I was present at the exhibition in Poland: 15,000 visitors, 100 exhibitors and no exibitors from Romania. In Poland there are 50,000 pigeon growers, if each would invest 1000 euros in pigeon transactions, we would talk about a market of 50 million euros. And if only a quarter would invest, we would be still talking about 12 million euros, and our target could be to take 10% of that market. It would mean bringing in Romania, about 1 million euros, annually.

For the moment, we only sell here, between us, we just move the money from one pocket to another. There is a huge potential that I would like to exploit. A trade balance is good when exports exceed imports. And people need to understand that if you want to sell, you have to follow the trading rules. You need to know how to sell, to promote yourself, but most importantly, to know how to sell.

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