{"id":56919,"date":"2022-12-31T13:38:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T13:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/?p=56919"},"modified":"2023-03-20T15:33:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T15:33:13","slug":"the-business-of-pickles-women-who-succeeded-in-the-international-market-with-their-own-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/the-business-of-pickles-women-who-succeeded-in-the-international-market-with-their-own-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"The business of pickles, women who succeeded in the international market with their own strength"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Women entrepreneurs from Kosovo are producing thousands of products a year. From small businesses, the name of their companies is already known in many markets at home and abroad. They have turned the passion of processing and producing food products into employment opportunities for the women of the communities. The will to work of Valdete, Remzije and Sllobodanka is not being diminished by the institutions&#8217; disinterest in support. They talk for KosovaPress about their challenges and difficulties over the years to keep the businesses they founded afloat.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For five years now, Valdete Sahiti from Vitia has been selling more than ten vegetable products. The main products that the &#8220;Loel&#8221; company has on the market are pickles and \u201cajvar\u201d (a relish made from peppers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The business of pickles, women who succeeded in the international market with their own strength\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AvQQFG2gm0k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In general, almost all types of vegetables are found\nhere in our company, mainly we have started the activity with homemade \u201cajvar\u201d,\nseeing that there is demand for other products as well, e.g. if a customer came\nhere to the workshop and asked &#8216;do you have this product, do you have that\nproduct?&#8217; we saw that the demand was for these products, thus we have also\nstarted with these other products by attending trainings, consulting with food\ntechnologists, i.e. we attended a lot of trainings&#8221;, says Sahiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sahiti confesses that she did not take this business\nseriously from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;One of the biggest challenges in the beginning was for\nexample, how can a woman\nknow these things, let alone thinking about export was just a dream, but\ngradually by working we have seen that even a woman can achieve it, for me now\nthat topic it is taboo&#8221;, she emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The name of her business is present in several markets of\nthe Gjilan region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;At the moment we have ten products, all of which are\nfrom vegetables, except for one from fruits which is the plum jam&#8230; At the\nmoment we are only in the region of Gjilan, in Anamorava mainly. These products are in the\nmarkets in Vitia, in the markets here in the village, as well as in three\nmarkets in Gjilan. We managed to succeed because this was the first year\nwe had the biggest work, and for that reason we are working gradually because\nmaybe we could not reach the capacity for more in the first year&#8221;, she\nsays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She asks the institutions for support, as she fears that the\nproducts will be damaged due to the small facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We make all these products with great pleasure and\nwith great will, but the facility is a bit small for the equipment we have. Our\nonly request, not the only one because we have a lot requests until all our requests are\nfulfilled, is that we need a bigger facility. Then the number of workers would\nalso increase, customer demands are for our products. For all these types of\nproducts, for each of them there are special requirements, it is interesting\nthat there is a person who only wants one product in bulk. But in order to\nincrease the number of workers and the production capacity, we have recently\nseen that the space is small and there is a possibility that not only the\nproducts but also ourselves to be damaged&#8221;, concludes Sahiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;From seeds to glass jars&#8221;, is the name of\nSllobodanka Kostiq&#8217;s business from the village of Livagja in Graqanica. Since\n2010, she has been involved in the production of fruits and vegetables and\ntheir conservation in jars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In the beginning it was very difficult because we all were\nwithout jobs. We all had families, we had children whom we had to educate.\nThen, I thought a lot about how to contribute to our family&#8217;s income and then,\nI started thinking about picking peppers&#8230;. I started with a greenhouse and\nwhen I saw that it was worth doing that, then I expanded to larger areas. Now I\nhave three greenhouses, I have gardens\/yards. I also employed some women from\nthe surrounding area, who wanted to work together and we cooperated, we sold\nthe products and in that way we paid for the education of our children&#8221;,\nshe said KosovaPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sllobodanka, from the Serbian community in Kosovo, shows\nthat they have a wide circle of consumers, who are clients. She has kept the\nrecipes from her mother and adds that she finds it difficult to collaborate\nwith others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have not received any kind of help from the state,\nno one has contacted us. I constantly went to the municipality of Graqanica.\nThere are so many unemployed people, so many lands in Kosovo&#8230; My products are\nsold in Belgrade, in Serbia. Anyone who has tried it, believe me I have had\noffers to work for Zlatibor and Kopaonik, but because we need labels, we need a\nlot of things for export at the border and thus we are blocked. It&#8217;s not a problem that can&#8217;t\nbe dealt with. On this occasion, I want to say to the women who cannot find\nwork, they should do this job and then they will see how they can make a living\nfrom this job&#8221;, adds Kostiq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even Remzije Ta\u00e7 from Mamusha, who belongs to the Turkish\ncommunity, has been managing to employ dozens of women from different\ncommunities in the &#8220;Ta\u00e7 Product&#8221; pickle factory for two years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was more my idea, I was staying at home and I was\nsaying to my husband \u2018since you are working at the collection center, I also\nwould like to get a job or to get employed somewhere\u2019. Then he said to me that\nhe will discuss with the boys and create a small factory\u2026 Now we have 30\nemployees per season, 30-35\u201d, she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the lack of support, the Turkish owner of this\nbusiness shows that she is enthusiastic to continue with this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t have any support, only I wanted to start\nthis job. I told my husband there won\u2019t be a problem, we had a little (money), and\nwe got into a little debt, so here we go. I was thinking to start with about\n20-30 barrels, just for the beginning, because you cannot start with much from\nthe beginning. Then God provided\nus, we worked for many years and we had a very good time&#8221;, she\nsays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a woman, she says, it is very difficult to deal with\nsuch a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The beginning was very difficult. But I said God first, then I will\nnot stop, I want to keep going forward. It was a little difficult when\nwe didn\u2019t have support, it was difficult, because if we had the machines, just\nsome in order to start the work, but we didn\u2019t even know where to start because\nwe also had to buy the barrels ourselves, and everything else what we needed&#8221;,\nshe adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its products are not present in the markets of the country, but Ta\u00e7 adds that it is exporting to many European countries. She also tells about the difficulties they have because of the weak electricity. &#8220;We put cornichons in bulk, four thousand, five thousand barrels when we fill them with peppers. We cannot waste them and only sell them in Kosovo. If someone would help and support us by telling us \u2018you can contact this company or that company\u2019 then when the payment is done it would be better even for us as well\u2026 From the municipality of Mamusha, they promised us a transformer, because the electricity it is weak, they said that they will bring the transformer. We are also waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture, maybe they will help us&#8230; There is a need for newer, more modern tools for the lids, we have done all this ourselves, we have had no help at all&#8221;, she concludes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Note: This article was made in the framework of the project: \u201cPromotion of women\u2019s businesses producing healthy food\u201d, which is implemented by the Center for Innovations and Development\/CFID and financed by: Slovak Agency for Development and International Cooperation\/SlovakAid.<\/em><br><em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"658\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/321418514_693457848827222_3447588649875660866_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/321418514_693457848827222_3447588649875660866_n.jpg 658w, https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/321418514_693457848827222_3447588649875660866_n-300x80.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women entrepreneurs from Kosovo are producing thousands of products a year. From small businesses, the name of their companies is already known in many markets at home and abroad. They have turned the passion of processing and producing food products into employment opportunities for the women of the communities. The will to work of Valdete, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":56922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,306,296,300,3131],"tags":[3314,3313,3315,3312,1222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60623,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919\/revisions\/60623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}