The Flavours from the Fields project, an initiative of the TUI Care Foundation, ran a successful three-day training course for representatives of the participating village cooperatives. Eighteen people, from eight villages, took part in the training which focused on improving entrepreneurship, marketing and cooperative management.

The cooperatives produce regional specialties such olive oil, honey, dairy products and dried fruits which are in high demand by the region’s hotels. The training, supported by the German Cooperatives Confederation in partnership with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, aims to support the cooperatives overall aim of raising their capacity and capabilities to help them supply products to mainstream hotels.

More than 90% of the attendees said that the training helped them to significantly increase their entrepreneurship, marketing skills and provided a better understanding of the management of cooperatives.

One attendee, Fatma Borekci from Ata Cooperative said: “After this training, we will evaluate the current state of our cooperative and work on our branding to make the best use of social media”.

The positive engagement of the cooperative members was helped in large part by the Turkish Village Cooperatives Union who provided invaluable organisational assistance. Its chairman, Eray Çiçek, said: “We have been actively involved in the Flavours From the Fields project from the beginning. Some of our members have already started to see benefits from the project and with the help of this training we are hoping that more cooperatives will generate business with hotels.”