Country: Romania
Wellbeing of Farmers: Physical Wellbeing, Mental Wellbeing, Social Wellbeing
Key Challenges: Low farm income (market vulnerability), Administrative burden, Lack of attractiveness of certain farming profession, Lack of appreciation/support for female farmers, Lack of generational renewal on farm, External factors (whether, climate change, etc.)
Key Target Groups: Young farmers, Female farmers, Older farmers, Farmers facing financial difficulties
Farm Size: Small/Family
Find Out More
Key contact: Anca Moga
Email: solbuncoop@gmail.com
Organization: SolBun Cooperative
Relevant Links:
Summary
The cooperative is a private initiative set up in 2020 by 6 producers, as a follow up of a workshop on “Farmers of the Future” – future scenarios. The producers were selling individually, mainly connecting with their clients (consumers) online.
The main need identified was the necessity of small farmers to cooperate.
The cooperative is aiming at aggregating small and local producers’ products for jointly accessing the market and connect with consumers. It is the first format in the region of Brasov under which small producers decided to come for selling better together, to earn more and continue farming, to provide a wider range of range of products, connect with consumers and to represent the small producers as one voice.
Objective
The main objective of the cooperative is to aggregate small producers and support to become more profitable and business orientated, to explore market niches and create opportunities for better income for small producers
Activities
1. Create capacity building for the small producers group (internal working procedures, structure of the cooperative) and expand the number of producers integrated;
2. Facilitate contracts and connections with restaurants and consumers;
3. Promote and lobby the municipality of Brasov for small farmers/producers to enter into the markets in the city, by representing the small farmers as one voice;
4. Create a visual identity for the cooperative that consumers can relate and connect with;
5. Source events (producers’ market, fairs) to promote the cooperative and increase visibility and sales;
6. Provide or outsource trainings and necessary expertise for the good functioning of the cooperative’ members
Main Outcome of the activity
It was an organic process of coming together to cooperate that the cooperative has encountered in the first year after was set-up. Another 4 more producers have joined in the first year, while 2 have decided to step down.
The most important result was the natural growing of the group, the inclusion of the cooperative into a network of small cooperatives activating at national level, to create a dialogue with the municipality and access one of the center-based markets, to connect directly with consumers face -to-face, to run a questionnaire for identifying consumers’ preferences for finding out the combinations of small-scale products most demanded, to benefit of trainings addressed to cooperatives, to create a visual identity for promoting the cooperative.
Cooperation with 2 restaurants in the city for supplying with local vegetables, dairy products, and preservatives. Also, the cooperative collaborates with a bank for offering online payments option to the clients coming to the free market.
Main Practical Recommendations
The key activity of a recently set-up cooperative should be to increase the business orientated approach as a “must” for increasing the profitability of cooperative and its members. Recruiting new members that can contribute to increase the volume and range of products that cooperative is selling.
The meetings and discussions between cooperative’ members still require facilitation. Ongoing training for better professionalization of small producers/farmers should be an accompanying activity, as well as cooperation with other businesses (marketing, processing, catering) for increasing the business dimension of the cooperative.
Key Stakeholders Involved
Members of the cooperative