Sustainable Development of Agricultural Cooperatives and Market of Armenia
The business is targeted at support provideing services to cooperative members and other farmers of rural Armenia,
The proposed project will offer the cooperative members, potential members and other farmers a number of the following services:
• consulting and training
• procurement and supply of agricultural machinery, equipment and other agricultural inputs;
• Sales and marketing services which will help the farmers to market their agricultural output both in the country and regionally.
Facts
2008
| Two years ago: | 0 |
| Last year: | 0 |
| This year (forecast): | 429,634 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 689,637 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 817,776 |
| Two years ago: | 0 |
| Last year: | 0 |
| This year (forecast): | 83,050 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 169,976 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 219,814 |
| Two years ago: | 0 |
| Last year: | 1 |
| This year (forecast): | 43 |
| Year 2 (forecast): | 47 |
| Year 3 (forecast): | 50 |
Finance needed
| Finance needed for fixed assets (buying of machines, buildings, ...) | 269,000 |
| Finance needed for working capital (salaries, stock, rental, leasing, transport, ...) | 21,000 |
| Total finance needed (US$) | 290,000 |
How do you expect this to be financed? Please note: the total amount mentioned here should be equal to the total finance needed at the previous question.
| Own Contribution in cash | 154,000 |
| Loans (debt) | 0 |
| Share capital that you seek from investors (equity) | 136,000 |
| Other sources | 0 |
| Total finance needed (US$) | 290,000 |
The Business
The proposed project will offer the cooperative members, potential members and other farmers a number of the following services:
• consulting and training ;
• procurement and supply of agricultural machinery, equipment and other agricultural inputs;
• Sales and marketing services which will help the farmers to market their agricultural output both in the country and regionally.
The Union will be rendering its to tis cooperative members, potential members or non-members of cooperatives who are representatives of agricultural community.
The cost of the product + the Union service fee < the market price of product or service
This is the basis and guarantee that the farmer will prefer our services.
There is an obvious lack of agricultural services in the market, thus our proposed services are highly demanded in Armenian agricultural market and as the Union has already developed a newtowork of cooperative farmer-members in different communities of Armenia, we will easily sell our services through this channel.
We are selling our services to the members of agricultural cooperatives, potentail members of agricultural cooperatives and community farmers.
In the market there is one Federation of Agricultural Associations (FAA). FAA delivered and is still delivering services to its members. However, the offered package of the services is not full and does not fully meet the requirements of the agricultural community. The miscommunication in the chain of farmer-cooperative-union-cooperative-farmers is the main issue in competitor's disadvantage.
As the Union offers a full package of agricultural services, including full marketing cycle from farm to the market, it becomes highly demanded by farmers of the country.
Our services bring in new agricultural technologies still absent in Armenian agricultural market (proper refrigerator storage, sorting, packaging, coding as well as agricultural machinery and equipment). We also offer trainings and consulting in exploiting those technologies.
1. The Union have a stable increase of cooperative members (yearly 17%).
2. Community non-member farmers are intereted in being invloved in agricultural cooperative
The Entrepreneur & Management
The President of the Union, Mr. Simon Arshakyan, has extensive experience in the field of agribusiness, implementation and management of different projects, mainly, cooperative associations’ establishment, their capacity building, marketing programs for cooperatives etc. You can find the details of his background and experience in his Resume attached to this document.
All the management of cooperatives and the Union were active members of different agricultural and cooperative organizations and have substantial experience in agriculture, agribusiness management, cooperative establishment and management.
Mr. Simon Arshakyan is a full-time staff member and spends 40 hours a week. The Union has 2 more full staff employees (Chief Operation Officer and President's Assistant).
Development
1.Creation of direct and indirect employment;
2.Educational programs, which will improve the skills of community members in implementing more effective agricultural activities;
3.Involvement of community members into cooperative movement;
4.Facilitation of access to financial resources;
5. Increases viability of rural communities