MEDF loan has been successfully realized in the village Przdevo - Negotino

The modern production provided positive marketing 

In the Negotino village of Przdevo, in Povardarie, within the program implemented by the Macedonian Enterprise Development Foundation (MEDF), at the beginning of this autumn, thanks to the paid loan with financial mediation by the Tutunska Bank, the Skopje factory SIKA will gather in one place the producers of the famous red pepper in order to buy out the crop upon which value depends the budget of ten families.

The loan is in amount of EURO 46.000 and it is a part of the paid loans by MEDF in the period from July to September last year, and it belongs to the so-called type one, from the existing three types, through which the Foundation continues to conquer new fields and to initiate innovations for a bigger range of new users, by reducing the risk, as well as setting up new products and services, resources mobilization etc.

SIKA is satisfied with the so far work and cooperation with all parties involved, among which is the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation as management of the Foundation, and the manager Sonja Isaeva says the following:

“This is our first experience with a loan of this type, but also first experience for the farmers involved, pepper producers. We have made the selection of producers on basis of the previously gained positive experiences, in spite of the fact that we had a lot of requests for participation by other agricultural families.

Positive side of the crediting is that in this way farmers can get money to buy basic working tools, fertilizers, seeds, but there is always the risk from the yearly fertility. We take the risk, but also the obligation to return the loan in the name of the farmers. The farmers were given 400.000 denars with a responsibility to pay it in three years. For now everything is impeccable. I have to point out that in Przdevo the production is very basic, with minimum technical means and in this way we help them have a certain sale of the produced, since we pay immediately, while we buy out. It would be nice to have more companies helping producers in this way, but according to our so-far experience, in the process of work there is still mistrust by both parties and it can be overcome only by mutual work. Except for the agreement for the job done, we have no guarantee that the producer will bring us the crop, the guarantee is only payment on time.

The SIKA factory has existed for 15 years. In the past we used to buy out dried peppers, but now, with the new way, by building the drying house in the village, peppers are bought out directly from the field, followed by the process of washing and drying, thus achieving the necessary biological correctness that provides the necessary export. Except in Macedonia, we export ground peppers in Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia and we have recently started exporting dried peppers in Australia. There is an opportunity for the production to expand and in my opinion it is inevitable for the farmers to give up the production of other cultures in the village: corn, tobacco, grapes, and to focus to one agricultural product, achieving better results, but in order to reach that level, farmers need education. This year they can already see the results from the invested and they can tell the difference.

In the village of Przdevo people talk with great respect about the new way of providing better conditions for peppers production and peppers buy-out, because the MEDF loan offers better conditions for work, increases seasonal employment and above all it provides a certain sale, a problem that most of the farmers in the country have been facing for years.

The SIKA family business was started 30 years ago by Sonja’s father, Atanas Atanasov, born in Przdevo, a village where peppers, poppy, anise and other of the above mentioned agricultural products have always been grown. He started by grinding peppers first making a grinding stone in the house’s garden, then another one, so the people from the village were given a chance to grind the dried pepper in the village itself, that before that they had to take to the mills by the rivers Boshava and Doshnica. The mills in his garden are still active and people from Negotino, Demir Kapija, Stip and Valandovo come here not only to grind peppers but wheat, too.

“Since we made the drying house in the village with our own investments, we have had a lot of work, a lot of demands for buying out of raw, healthy peppers. Out of 500 tons bought out dried peppers a year, we get 50 tons of finished products. “The fields where peppers are grown are by the river Vardar, under the highway and it is very difficult to work there, because there is no good road leading there. But now it is easier since we have the drying house in the village and we do not have to dry peppers ourselves” – says Pavlina Dimova, one of the members of the ten families involved in the MEDF loan. The involved families with the loan received buy tractors, semi-trailers, irrigation pumps, fertilizers, necessary protection tools, believing that they will return the loan by continuous production.

Pavlina Ilieva, not satisfied with the so far life in the village, in spite of the fact that now there is everything, thinking of the existing ambulance and telephone lines, thinks that the biggest problem for everyone is the fact that there is no permanent job. She points out their good cooperation with Atanas and the loan that her family can use to buy basic tools for work, saying that the villagers are getting poorer and poorer and that most of them wait to get some seasonal money to pay their food expenses. “In the past we used to grow a lot more cultures, but now we do not, we can see there is no buy-out, that labor does not pay”. Taking the collected peppers in the drying house and getting assets for buying out, farmers pay back the loan and use the money they get from the buy-out to plan the production for the following year.

“The drying house has possibilities to process other cultures, too, not only a large number of vegetables, but also certain kinds of fruits, but we need more working capital for that” – says Atanas. “We have been using the drying house for two years and we have taken a loan for its building and equipping from the Tutunska Banka. Its existence has brought novelties to the village, about 40 villagers work seasonally for two months, and 4 of them have a full-time job. In the months when the buy-out takes place, the village becomes alive in some way, people work in three shifts and in the course of the years it contributes to the village development in general”.

Inside the modern equipped drying house we can see the whole process, from getting the whole pepper, then the process of selection, washing and turning into red dust used as food. Peppers for processing are also brought from Stip, Radovis, Krivolak, Pepeliste, Negotino, from the villages of Tremnik, Timjanik and other places.

“In the past we used to be a bigger and richer village, but now young people have run away. Our biggest problem is not having an irrigation system, years are dry. There are huge production opportunities since the land is fertile and everything can be grown on it” – says 67-year old Jordan Dimov who points out that each elections politicians promise to solve the problem of irrigation, but these are just promises, the villagers have a problem with water-supply, too and in the summer period it happens to be little water and they are forced to manage in different ways. Przdevo’s old name is Slatina and the new one, as the inhabitants say has been given as a result of their destiny that has “fried” them. Some of the villagers are not very enthusiastic about the fact that quite soon something serious will change in the village, but they would like to have more companies like SIKA and loans that could bring to life the power that the land and its inhabitants possess.

 

“One of the defined tasks of the Macedonian Enterprise Development Foundation (MEDF) is to improve the approach to the financial services for the farmers, self-employed people and the entrepreneurs from micro and small companies.

For that purpose, MEDF within the credit line implemented by accredited financial institutions – Tutunska Banka, IK Banka, Moznosti and Stopanska Banka A.D. – Bitola, has set the loan of type 1. What makes this loan different from other loans is the fact that it is aimed for farmers, self-employed people and entrepreneurs through trade mediators. That is, the trade mediator (manufacturer of agricultural and other products, seller of agricultural mechanization etc.) is a holder of the loan in front of the financial institution in order to credit farmers, self-employed people and entrepreneurs for purchase of equipment, long-term groves or raw materials. The implementation of this loan is based upon cooperation and trust already established between the producer/processor and the farmer, that is, entrepreneur. So far, with this type of a loan, through 14 trade mediators, 1.437 farmers, that is entrepreneurs, have been covered, for growing new vine plantations, processing gardening products, purchase of cows, purchase of agricultural mechanization, mushrooms production etc.”...- says Tatjana Lazarevska, MEDF.