LocationsJaffa Komerc
Making use of arable land in Herzegovina and creating opportunities for small hold farmers by investing into development of rural economy.
For Jaffa Komerc, the SDG Accelerator Programme has been a rewarding opportunity to leverage company’s expertise and sustainability initiatives to promote a development of rural economy through cooperative structures.
"With our extensive knowledge of fruit production and trade, as well as our deep understanding of the market needs, we have realized that our local capacity of 6,000 cherry trees which allow us to sell around 250 tons of cherries is fairly limited in comparison to the market demand of 5,000 tons of cherries. Hence, we found a way to establish a cooperative structure and give an opportunity to small hold farms, who would, according to our instructions and with our support, produce seedlings that are in line with market requirements. This way, we would not only secure meeting the enormous demand, but we would ensure the engagement of wider community, by providing an adequate knowledge and contribution to the smaller producers who are now invisible on the market. Besides, over the years, we have already launched few initiatives where we educated small farmers on the sustainable farming and hosted school visits to our plantation, so we have been proactive and have gained trust from the wider community and our main stakeholders."
Throughout the project duration, Jaffa Komerc has worked hard on developing the model for the cooperative structure by observing both cooperatives and the customers’ needs, acting as an intermediary that binds these two sides together. Subsequently, Jaffa Komerc will procure seedlings of the Celeste cherries sort from Italy that are most suitable for Herzegovina climatic conditions and market requirements, after which small farmers will receive these free of charge under agreed conditions. Given its wide knowledge about the fruit production sector, Jaffa Komerc possesses the competences to share its know-how and provide precise instructions for planting cherry trees. Such way, they will ensure that the quality specifications are met in accordance with the market requirements, says the company’s Deputy Director, Elma Badžak:
"We would guarantee our cooperatives the purchase of these cherry products at prices that are currently valid on the market. We would buy fresh cherries, adequately sort, store, and package them, and with our distribution channels we would ensure products’ exit of the larger quantities towards our customers. The important aspect of this project is focused on capacity building in terms of professional training and experience exchange, but also the practical aspect of training according to the global standards. As a part of our engagement, the quality assurance and quality product certification will take place, which will enable us to serve the EU market timely and successfully."
Positive reactions and potential for future replication of model
According to Elma, this project idea is an upgrade of the activities that have been developed with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) under the project DEVELOPPP.de, which allowed them to already take concrete steps in its implementation. So far, Jaffa Komerc initiated an announcement call for small hold farmers to express their interest and readiness to participate in the project. Following the specific evaluation criteria, they selected more than 90 cooperatives who will be receiving dedicated training during December 2020.
"Up to this point, we received an extremely good reaction and selected a large number of high-quality potential small hold farmers with whom we will be cooperating in the near future. Such a great interest makes us believe that this is a realistic plan that has a great potential for realization and genuine contribution to the increased income and family stabilization in rural areas," says Elma Badžak.
For Jaffa Komerc and its cooperatives, the recognition and branding of the Herzegovinian early cherries is of pivotal importance, in fact, they are joining efforts to promote the Herzegovina region to be recognizable for its high-quality cherries in the international market:
"Our goal is to grow together with our cooperatives, enable utilization of their capabilities and hard work, provide them with a decent life and income opportunities and also promote the whole region in a way that makes it a sustainable story with a quality background. By introducing new fruit sorts that we will have fully prepared for distribution, along with accompanying brand story, we believe we can make an interesting, successful, and by far, the win-win approach for our long-term cooperation and sustainable initiative."
Furthermore, they emphasize that the long-term goal is to strengthen the established cooperative structure, get recognized in the market and replicate such business model on other fruit cultures in the future.
"We worked hard on developing the model for the cooperative structure by observing both cooperatives and the customers’ needs. Our goal is to grow together with our cooperatives, enable utilization of their capabilities and hard work, provide them with a decent life and income opportunities and also promote the whole region in a way that makes it a sustainable story with a quality background."
Read more about Jaffa Komerc here.