Surplus of agricultural crops encourages agro-processing by women cooperatives in the South with foreign assistance

Al Akhbar newspaper published a report today on rural cooperatives to which farmers resort to in order to market their surplus local crops. cooperatives The report highlights the experience of a number of rural women cooperatives in South Lebanon who are involved in agro-processing and that use traditional know how to process local raw agricultural products into foodstuff of good standards that are marketable externally with reasonable profits. One such women cooperative is Deir Kanoon Ras el Ein cooperative which uses cracked wheat, sesame seeds, wheat and olive oil to produce traditional and healthy bread.  The president of the cooperative, Daad Ismail notes that the cooperative was created in 2005 and enjoys a large membership of women in the area who now are making products that have reputable locally and in countries of the Lebanese diaspora.
In Deir Mimas (Marje3yoon), the Cooperative for Organic Agriculture and Ranching has become the hub for producing tons of natural honey and extra virgin olive oil according to its president, Amal Hurani, who notes that the olive oil produced by her association competes with Italian products.  She adds that the organisation has become very important to tens of families as it creates opportunities to market products.  For her part, the president of the Cooperative Association for Agro-Processing in Deir Kanoun An Naher, Hanaa al Husseini, noted that women from the region are trying as much as possible to make use of all existing agricultural products to produce healthy food items free of chemical preservatives.  However, she complains that they do not get any official support from the part of the municipality or any other public party to help them market their products.  Khodr Sarhan from Kfarkella transformed his supply of olive oil which he could not sell because of competition and extra supply into olive oil soaps of different kinds after he participated in a training workshop organised by World Vision.
The report highlights the support to cooperative organisations and municipalities provided by World Vision which organised a number of training in agro-processing and marketing and has helped set up 5 groups of 170 people. In addition, WV is helping municipalities organise exhibitions such as the exhibition of Safad el Barikh in Bint Jbeil which was opened recently.  The federation of municipalities in Jabal Amel set up, for its part, a dairy production factory in Houla (Marjeyoun) and a pastry workshop in Tibeh.
Source: http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/202710">Al-Akhbar 17 March 2014