Encouraging farmers and businesses to deepen horizontal and vertical cooperation (2021)

Within the framework of the HAED-Jo project, Bureau Leeters and ECO Consult offered workshops and site-visits for Jordanian farmers and large businesses in order to support them with contract farming models. Only few businesses in the Jordanian horticulture sector have professional postharvest facilities and equipment, such as pre-cooling, cold storage and sorting and packaging lines. This intervention aimed at sustainable cooperation between these business integrators and supplying farmers who do not have postharvest facilities of their own. By demonstrating guiding principles, model agreements and best practices in other countries, the farmers and owners of postharvest facilities in the Jordan Valley and the highlands were brought together.

The HAED-Jo project (2017-2022) has a broad scope, ranging from supporting small scale, community based organisations to large producers and export-oriented businesses. Improved postharvest technologies and postharvest cooperation have been HAED-Jo's priorities from the beginning, as an effective mechanism has not yet been established in Jordan since the crisis in Syria cut the logistic lines between Jordan and Eastern European markets in 2013.