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Forest products in demand Bosnia and Herzegovina -- As a single mother, Ljubica Rados was struggling to earn enough to support herself and her children. She lives in the municipality of Gornji Vakuf - Uskoplje, an area that is famous for its forest vegetation. With some past experience as a retailer, she decided to use her experience in the trading business to set up her own business collecting and trading forest products. She was taking on a major responsibility, but she soon found people to work with, gained their trust and began to build up her business. In 2000 she registered her company, Flores, which specializes in medicinal herbs and mushrooms for export. Initially the main obstacles faced by Ljubica were the lack of favourable credit conditions – high interest rates and short repayment periods – for starting up small businesses and her inability to secure start-up capital. It took her three years to find a viable source of credit to improve production after she registered the business, which she was running mainly from home. Finally, in 2003 she received €25,000 (about US$25,000) from the IFAD project, part of which went towards the purchase of equipment – a cooling and drying room – while she used the rest as cash to cover operational start-up costs. Before accepting the credit, Ljubica made sure that she had found customers for her products in Germany. The business has flourished, and the export of mushrooms, both dried and fresh, has proved particularly profitable. After starting with 16 tonnes of mushrooms in 2003, the company collected a record 400 tonnes in 2006. A large number of farmers in the vicinity and from other parts of the country have become involved in the work. Flores works on a seasonal basis with about 2,000 employees, most of them women who welcome the additional income they earn by gathering mushrooms and herbs. Collection is now managed by a producer’s association which the company helped set up. Women in particular welcome the opportunity to engage socially in meetings and training sessions organized by the company for its employees. “We have always had excellent cooperation with co-workers,” says Ljubica. To begin with, she hired a specialist to train those working for Flores in collection techniques and management skills. Then she became qualified as a trainer herself, and now organizes training sessions of her own on a regular basis. More recently Flores has become a guarantor for an IFAD microcredit loan for 48 farmers, half of them women, who have been given credit to purchase strawberry seedlings. Flores provides the farmers with support and training to enable them to begin producing strawberries, then purchases the products from the farmers and exports the fruit to Croatia. Ljubica plans to expand into cabbage production, following the same formula. Source: IFAD |
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