FAOs Activities in Agricultural Marketing, Management and Finance

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FAOs Activities in Agricultural Marketing,
Management and Finance

• Central and Eastern Europe

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Key issues for rural areas across CEE

• Lack of economic opportunity, low incomes and
  high levels of unemployment
• Limited qualification levels of human capital and
  poorly developed management and commercial
  skills
• Inadequate rural infrastructure
• Lack of access to suitable rural finance and
  credit facilities for small to medium-sized
  enterprises (SMEs)
• Inadequate support for business in the form of
  information and mutual organization.

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Challenges in Central and Eastern Europe

• Need to overcome difficulties in accessing
  markets due to lack of information and knowledge
  of market requirements, small volume and
  variable produce quality
• The need to respond to international, national
  and industry food quality standards, vertical
  coordination and retail chain concentration by
  greater integration in the food supply chain
• The need to become more competitive and efficient
  suppliers to combat imports and allow exports.

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Trends

• Increasing diversification of farming activities
  into new products
• Incomes from farming activities dependent on
  improving production, management and marketing
  skills and increasing intensification and scale
  of production
• Increasing realisation that small producers
  benefit by grouping together for production
  support, input procurement and marketing.

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Pillars for FCRED
Farm commercialisation and rural enterprise
development
Policies and institutions
Rural finance services
Access to markets
Cooperative and community development
Rural infrastructure, services and linkages
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Issues and constraints to FCRED

• Lack of strategic planning to address sector
  modernisation, consolidation and intensification
  in a sustainable way
• Lack of market information, market analysis and
  appraisal, inadequate market research and
  promotion
• Low level of credibility in contracts with
  producers and processors
• Individuals and organizations have no experience
  of community activities
• Need for a legal framework for farmers
  organizations and improved legislation on
  cooperatives

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Issues and constraints to FCRED

• Low competency of advisory services for rural
  business development
• Limited availability of finance to underpin farm
  modernization and production intensification
• Weak infrastructure for marketing and
  distribution- roads, markets and transport
  services

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Farm Business Management

• Stakeholder Workshops
• Farm Commercialization and Income Diversification
  on the Road to EU Accession
• Participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia,
  Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and
  Slovenia
• Key constraints identified
• lack of working capital and investment funds,
• lack of appropriate managerial expertise and
  know-how,
• unstable market environment
• poor and ineffective legislation (competition,
  contracts, property rights and poor governance)
  and
• inadequate economic infrastructure (roads,
  railways and water supply).

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Farm Business Management

• Trends and Issues in Commercial Farming,
  Agribusiness and Rural Enterprise Development -
  Experiences from Selected Central and Eastern
  European Countries , 2005
• participants from Armenia, Hungary, Macedonia,
  Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine
• Discussed
• The declining role of Agriculture
• Restructuring of former state and cooperative
  farms
• EU and CEE experience in vertical integration
  and agri-food chain concentration and growing
  importance of scale economies

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Field Projects

• Bulgaria- TCP Project Capacity Building for
  Sustainable Delivery of Agribusiness Advice to
  Market-oriented Farmers
• Provided training in
• (i) farm business management and marketing
• (ii) farm management and marketing data analysis,
  
• (iii) agribusiness management,
• (iv) group presentation and communication skills,
  
• (v) farm record keeping

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FAO- CEI/EBRD Project (GCP/RER/014)

• CEI Wholesale Markets Foundation
• Project started in October 2001 to support the
  functioning and activities of the CEIWMF
• Membership comprises markets in Albania
  (2),Croatia (3), Hungary, Romania and Poland
• Meetings have discussed
• Operation of Logistics Platforms
• Regulatory Frameworks affecting Markets
• Diversification of Market activities
• Produce Quality Enhancement and Export
  regulations
• Role of markets in supporting producer groups
• Wholesale Market operations under EU Accession

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FAO Projects (Marketing)

• Albania GCP/ALB/005- Agriculture Production
  Support
• (Integrated approach to food chain development)
• Supports development in milk and dairy, fruits
  and vegetables, wine and grape brandy and olive
  oil sectors
• Provided support in
• Agronomy- new varieties, chemicals, protected
  cultivation
• Input supplies- planting materials, chemicals,
  farm equipment
• Group formation and development- management,
  rules, finances, marketing arrangements
• Processing improvement- milk and cheese, olive
  oil, wine
• Business and Marketing plan preparation

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OLIVE AND OIL CHAIN

• Most notable achievements include
• Two farmers association were formalized with 136
  members, owning 11,800 trees)
• Various training and extension provided
• IPM campaign organized/conducted
• Olive pruning and sanitation conducted
• Infrastructure and technological renovation
  completed
• Improved quality of oil (bottled and labelled

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FAO Projects ( Marketing)

• The Macedonia project GCP/MCD/001 (NOR)
• linked farmers with processors and fresh buyers
  and provided market and buyer requirements to
  farmers
• agreed quantities, deliveries quality standards
  and production levels between farmers and buyers
• provided farmers with the latest farming
  technology and fertilizers and agro-chemicals on
  credit and arranged credit repayment through
  buyers
• provided training, extension advice, agro
  chemical advice and pest control advice to
  farmers
• advised farmers on EUROPGEP standards and
  compliance.

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Rural Finance Study

• Undertaken in Romania and Bulgaria on behalf of
  EBRD
• rapid appraisal and analysis of the supply of and
  demand for bank lending to small and medium sized
  enterprises (SME) in rural areas for EBRDs and
  the EU SME Finance Facility for small and
  medium-sized enterprises in EU Accession
  Countries.
• This facility aims at providing, through partner
  banks and leasing companies, finance to farms and
  other rural enterprises.

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