 Agriplod Cooperative, Stolac
'Agriplod' cooperative was established in 1999, is based in Stolac and is active in the wider Herzegovina area. The cooperative's core activities are the organized purchase and sale of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and honey from local farmers and the growing, processing and sale of medicinal and aromatic herbs. In conjunction with these core activities Agriplod constantly trains its members to increase the quantities and quality of production. Currently, Agriplod is focusing on increasing the quantity of production, the introduction of new products such as packaged teas, seedlings of medicinal herbs and of vegetables, the creation of improved product packaging, introduction of new technologies and establishing export opportunities to the United Kingdom, Croatia, and Pakistan.
The cooperative applied for and received a Community Grant of 57,044 KM under the USAID-funded program for equipment for the processing of herbs. The equipment was delivered between September and December 2004 and included: a dispenser for dosing of crumbled/powdered herbs; a separator for plant stalks and stems from leaves; a herb chopper; and an inclined conveyor belt. Since the start of the process to award the Community Grant the number of farmers working with the cooperative has increased from 720 to 900 and three new full-time employees have bee engaged in the herb processing activities. As a condition of the Community Grant award Agriplod is obliged to repay in-kind through the provision of land cultivation services and lavender plantations to members and local farmers 25% of the total value of the grant and repayment is scheduled to start in April 2005. The UMCOR assistance under the Community Grant program was coordinated with USAID/LAMP program that provided an automatic tray seeding machine for medicinal and aromatic plants.
To date Agriplod processed 1,000 kilograms of herbs for 'Hercegovina Bilje' company from Ljubinje, for 500 KM using the herb chopping machine received from UMCOR. Agriplod has since received new orders from the company for a further 500 kg for the month of April. Currently Agriplod also sells unpackaged, natural teas to Klas in Sarajevo, but has also applied to the Foreign Trade Chamber in order to obtain bar codes for its products; this will enable Agriplod to sell products directly without an intermediary such as Klas or Hercegovina Bilje.
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Updated July 2005
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