Dairy Supplier Investment Support Programme

We had been working on a programme initiated by the Swisscontact Georgia which works with the rural small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs in Georgia. They currently implement activities to build a more effective and resilient system of SME access to finance and business support services to increase rural income and employment. Swisscontact’s activities in Georgia are aligned with the Swiss Cooperation Office’s strategy in the South Caucasus which is oriented towards rural business diversification, resilience, income, and job creation.

The Dairy Supplier Investment Support Program aimed to facilitate rural market access opportunities of rural farmers from various regions of Georgia through provision of business advisory and technical services and access to finance. The goals of the project, which our team was responsible for, were facilitation of dairy buyers, e.g. large dairy product manufacturers such as brand Sante, Sophlis Nobati and Agrohub, in establishing a segmentation methodology and provide technical assistance to their suppliers. Specifically, assessment of potential production and provision of memoranda to support long-term partnership with selected rural farmers. In addition, our team supported farmers in improving and formulating loan/grant applications for accessing additional financing to increase production capacity.

How we helped

The project had gone through different stages to achieve the initial goals. At first, our team provided technical assistance to buyers on segmentation methodology and production projections, which included elaboration of a guideline to segment appropriate, high potential and motivated suppliers. On the second stage our team supported buyers to conduct rapid assessment of suppliers’ financial and business capabilities. This also covered evaluation of key financial and business opportunities and barriers.

Furthermore, our team facilitated long-term partnership with rural farmers and major buyers by signing the memoranda about predetermined order terms between specific buyer and supplier. For the next stage, SavvY developed supplier investment plans for each farmer, which included forecasting for 5 years. Finally, SavvY Team supported suppliers to prepare finance applications relevant to the source of the funding.

Impact and potential

During the project, 43 farmers were identified and analyzed, 19 investment plans were prepared, from which 17 loan applications were made.

As a result, the project outcomes enabled the diary industry to test long-term partnership with key major players and small and micro rural farmers. Also, project facilitated the linkage with central and rural economy and assessed farmers’ access to finance capabilities for further development of the dairy industry.