Amid Lebanon’s worsening socio-economic crisis, local farmers and agricultural cooperatives have been struggling with rising production costs and reduced incomes. In response, the USAID-funded Community Support Program (CSP) has been supporting six agricultural cooperatives by providing them with equipment to expand their production and improve the livelihoods of around 1,667 farming households.

To ensure the sustainability of these interventions, CSP trained cooperative members on food quality and processing, business and marketing plans, and sales, while facilitating market linkages. Additionally, CSP established a Community of Practice (CoP) for cooperatives and launched a series of practice forums aimed at addressing operational concerns and exploring innovative solutions to improve coordination and collaboration.

On April 19, 2024, 19 representatives from the six cooperatives attended CSP’s second practice forum to enhance their product exhibition skills, including booth management and price negotiation. CSP also shared a draft MoU to be signed by all six cooperatives to facilitate the exchange and co-use of cooperative assets, expertise, and techniques, to improve production, marketing, bargaining for good deals, and selling.

“I feel more confident in interacting with and selling to different types of customers. We have also initiated discussions for collaboration with other cooperatives on produce exchanges from the southern region,” said Sanaa Omar, Head of the Jdaidet Al Qaitaa cooperative in Akkar.

The six agricultural cooperatives supported by CSP are: The Cooperative of Olive Farmers in Tanbourit, the Saidoun Agricultural Cooperative, the Agricultural Cooperative of Ainata el Arz, the Majdel Anjar Agricultural Produce Cooperative, the Jdaidet El Qaitea Women’s Cooperative for Agricultural Products, and the Cooperative Association for Production of Agricultural Products in Fnaideq.