Success Story
Organic Mushroom Sales Explode
Company asks for USAID help when orders exceed its production capacities
In 2001, Milan Zoric and Boran Maglov had a dream to build a business exporting organic mushrooms of the highest quality. They believed that without a dream there is no reason to work, and without work there is no reason to dream. So they established the company Mushroom in the town of Celinac, which combined Milan’s twenty years of financial experience as a bank credit officer with Boran’s many years of Medicinal & Aromatic Plant (MAP) experience.
 |
|
Mushroom employee proudly
shows off her |
They determined from the very beginning to become an organically certified processor of mushrooms, which they achieved through the Institute for Market Ecology (IMO) of Switzerland. To maintain this certification they must make sure that all their wild mushroom gatherers are trained as certified organic mushroom gatherers. Due to their emphasis on high quality, by the end of 2003 Mushroom had received more orders than they could fill from Switzerland, Austria and Italy. As a result they contacted USAID’s Linking Agriculture Markets and Producers (LAMP) project about potential assistance in increasing their capacity to fulfill their many orders. Specifically, they wanted help with their drying and cooling capacity.
LAMP provided Mushroom with a grant that enabled the company to expand their premises and purchase a new dryer and cooling space in late 2004. These improvements enabled the company to increase sales from 13 tons of dried mushrooms in 2003 to 19 tons in 2004. The company projects sales of 25-30 tons in 2005. This added processing capacity has resulted in an increase of full time workers from 3 to 4, part time workers from 50 to 60 and gatherers from 300 to 400.
Among their mushroom gathers are Mr. Nihad Hodzic and his mother, who are from Bihac. They are good examples of well trained, hard working gatherers who receive a significant portion of their income from Mushroom. As a result of their exemplary work, Mushroom awarded them a small drier to reduce their transportation costs and thus add value right at the collection point. Reduced costs for Mushroom…more money for the Hodzic family…a win/win arrangement!!
Some dreams come true!
Prodaja organski
uzgojenih gljiva postala hit
preduzece trazilo pomoc USAID-a kada su
narudbe postale vece od proizvodnih kapaciteta
2001. godine, Milan Zoric i Boran Maglov su sanjali da pokrenu firmu koja bi izvozila organski uzgojene gljive najviseg kvaliteta. Vjerovali su da ako covjek nema san da nema razlog da radi, a bez rada nema razloga ni da sanja. Tako su osnovali firmu Gljiva u Celincu, u koju je ugradjeno Milanovih dvadeset godina finansijskog iskustva na poslovima referenta za kredite u banci i mnogo godina Boranovog iskustva u radu sa ljekovitim i aromaticnim biljem.
Od samog pocetka su odlucili da postanu organski certificirani preradjivaci gljiva, a takav certifikat su dobili putem Instituta za trzisnu ekologiju (IMO) iz Svicarske. Kako bi zadrzali ovaj certifikat moraju osigurati da svi sakupljaci divljih gljiva budu obuceni kao certificirani skupljaci organski uzgojenih gljiva. Zbog naglska na visokom kvalitetu, do kraja 2003. godine, firma Gljiva je iz Svicarske, Austrije i Italije primila vise narudzbi nego sto je mogla isporuciti gljiva. Zbog toga su kontaktirali USAID–ov Porjekat za povezivanje poljoprivrednih trzista sa proizvodjacima i preradjivacima (LAMP) i trazili pomoc koja se odnosi na povecanje kapaciteta kako bi podmirili brojne narudzbe. Konkretno, trazili su pomoc za povecanje kapaciteta susare i komore za hladjenje.
LAMP je obezbijedio preduzecu Gljiva grant koji im je omogucio da krajem 2004. godine prosire objekat i nabave novu susaru i hladnjacu. Zahvaljujuci ovom unapredjenju kapaciteta, firma je povecala prodaju sa 13 tona susenih gljiva u 2003. godini na 19 tona u 2004. Ovo preduzece planira prodaju 25-30 tona u 2005. godini. Ovaj dodatni kapacitet prerade doveo je do povecanja uposlenih sa punim radnim vremenom sa 3 na 4 uposlenika i uposlenika sa skracenim radnim vremenom sa 50 na 60 uposlenika, kao i broja skupljaca gljiva sa 300 na 400.
Medju skupljacima gljiva su i Nihad Hodzic i njegova majka koji su iz Bihaca. Oni predstavljaju dobar primjer dobro obucenih i vrijednih skupljaca koji znatan dio svojih prihoda ostvaruju putem preduzeca Gljiva. Zbog njihovog marljivog rada preduzece Gljiva im je dodijelilo malu susaru kako bi reducirali transportne troskove, cime su unaprijedili i sam punkt za sakupljanje gljiva. Smanjeni troskovi za Gljivu, a vise novca za porodicu Hodzic cini super povoljan aranzman!
Neki snovi se i ostvare.
Last updated on: 12/01/2008
Links | Contact Us | Search
