completed· Health

Cooperative marketing strategies based on commercial farmer members

During the Company assessment in March 2016, it became clear that the cooperative has an enthusiastic, young and well educated board members, financially healthy operation, solid track record on management and governance, focus on cooperative marketing and larger number of farmer members. The team realized that the cooperative need external support in developing the cooperative marketing strategies. Thus, the team recommended Agriterra for cooperation with the cooperative initially for six months and develop elaborate action plan after outcome from six months cooperation. The proposed project activities for half year are to collect and interpret information form farmer mapping, market survey and possible product diversification, and conduct research different market propositions. Based upon the information of farmers and market, develop an cooperative marketing strategy with a financial business case. The project also support the cooperative in developing financial management capacities, identify and prioritize farmers needs, and develop market strategies. The AACL made the first steps in the cooperative marketing the last years but without a clearly defined business plan. This resulted in the agro shop that sells small quantities of products mainly produced by the subsistence farmers. The shop is not sufficient to sell all the products produced by the members. At this moment there is no cooperative marketing for the commercial farmers. The AACL has 2015 members out of which 150 are commercial farmers. The project will focus on the commercial farmers for the pilot phase and include the subsistence farmers afterwards. The main commodities for the cooperative marketing is seasonal vegetables produced by the members. The objective of the project is to develop the suitable and potential collective output marketing strategies in order to have their commercial member farmers benefit from higher prices that can be achieved further in the supply chain or through different market outlets. The tentative budget for this project is Euro 4500. Agriterra and AACL will monitor and evaluate the progress of the project. Based upon the six months cooperation, the AACL will develop and implement the business which would be sustainable regular income for the cooperative. Develop a cooperative marketing strategy which gives more marketing opportunities and better prices for all their members.