With the assistance of Lydian Armenia, the agricultural cooperative  Heavy Basket will start exporting agricultural products

ArmInfo. "Heavy Basket" Agricultural Consumer Cooperative, which was established in 2017 in Gndevaz community of RA Vayots Dzor region, includes members from the  nearby communities of Jermuk, Gorayk and Saravan. The Cooperative summed up the Year 2017 with progress & key steps towards its establishment:  cooperative registration, product presentation during Christmas Bazar and its official opening ceremony. 

"Heavy Basket" presents ecologically clean products of Vayots Dzor  region to the Armenian market and steps have already been taken to  reach out to new business partners abroad. It means that in 2018, the  new Cooperative  will start exporting about 10 types of ecologically  clean, high-quality and tasty food items:  dried fruits, nuts and  seeds and various alpine herbs and teas.

During the opening ceremony Cooperative President Samvel Torosyan  highlighted that his dream to open such a business, which will  provide jobs and prospects for development came true, finally there  were entities that supported the start-up business. He particularly  thanked Lydian Armenia that is implementing the Amulsar mining  project, for its support for this activity.  Within this program,    "Heavy Basket" has received financial support, technical assistance,  and business management skills. Two partner organizations have also  made a great contribution to the development of the cooperative:  "Partnership and Teaching''/ P&T NGO that provided capacity building  on Cooperatives, organizational issues,  an exchange visit to  Lukashin to visit with  successful experience of local Cooperative;  and "HDP" Foundation, which established & fully renovated a  Collection point in Gndevaz, and will help acquire Lydian-supported  agricultural produdcts and new crops grown through new-technology  greenhouses and high-yielding gardens from Gorayq, Saravan and  Gndevaz. 

During the opening ceremony, Armine Ginosyan, a member of the "Heavy  Basket" Cooperative, presented the entire path of this local entity:  from capacity building in social entrepreneurship to the  establishment of the cooperative: production processes, organization  of effective sales and marketing plan. This is a promising successful  start-up business that can be replicated elsewhere & serve as an  example for other entrepreneurs. The project is also a successful  model of partnership, where each party had distinct mission and role:  Lydian Armenia funded the project, the various components of which  were implemented by P&T NGO, HDP Foundation and Zangakatun NGO.   Within the framework of the latter project, "Rays of Future" NGO was  registered in Jermuk, that trained  schoolchildren, teachers and  parents from Jermuk and Kechut, taught skills to make accessories  from waste and generate income. The official opening ceremony of this  NGO took place in September last year.