009-2012-11-NOA_Rizona_export.docx

Rizona processing unit.

Photo: Musli Berisha

Photo: Musli Berisha

Rizona discussing export agreement with German food distributor Kelmendi GmbH

VEGETABLE PROCESSORS DEVELOP GREAT RELISH FOR EXPORT

U.S. Agency for International Development www.usaid.gov In the years following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Kosovo’s vegetable-processing industry collapsed. State-owned enterprises vanished with few privately owned firms filling the void. Today, USAID is helping Kosovo restart the pickling, canning and preserving of vegetables on an industrial scale.

That effort targets the entire value chain—from engaging farmers to grow vegetables specifically for domestic processing, to encouraging processors to focus on technology, efficiency and quality.

RIZONA is among Kosovo’s most promising vegetable processors. From an initial focus on vegetable collection center serving the domestic market, the firm now eyes the European export market with pickled vegetables.

Rizona began in 2010 with first 10 tons for local markets its 16 employees—63% of them women—pickling peppers. This year, the firm distributed 80 tons of processed products in Germany.

To help Rizona expand further, this time abroad, USAID’s New Opportunities for Agriculture (NOA) project facilitated the firm’s first foreign sales especially new pepper variety “kebap pepper” tested first ever in Kosovo. NOA helped Rizona contract with Germany’s Kelmendi GmbH, a food distributor that caters to Kosovo’s large European émigré population, for an initial 10 tons of new product beside the 70 tons of “ somborka” variety . In 2013, Rizona anticipates exporting another 100 tons of product to Finland—a tenfold increase. Other local food processors, such as Ask Foods, also have commenced exports.

These exports will benefit more than just processors. Indeed, they should favor Kosovo’s farmers as well, who stand to see increases in farm revenues, wages and employment. Increased exports also should reduce Kosovo’s substantial trade deficit, and decrease spoilage. Indeed, a lack of postharvest storage capacity has meant thousands of tons of domestically grown vegetables are lost to spoilage each year. Now, increased processing capacity can absorb more of Kosovo’s fresh crop.

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