World Vision's Campagnia Goes International

Campagnia, the brand name of organic products produced by World Vision Lebanon's SABIL (Sustainable Agri-Business Initiative in Lebanon) grant, went international for the first time last month by participating in the fourth edition of the Dubai's Middle East Natural and Organic products Expo 2006.

The two-day exhibition featured 100 exhibitors from all around the world, and according to Helena Fehayly, BioCoop Lubnan's marketing specialist, was a 'huge visibility success' for Campagnia.

"The recent war on Lebanon and the current volatile political and economic situation in Lebanon have negatively affected Campagnia which suffered a 60 per cent drop in sales during the past couple of months," Fehayly said.

"So this exhibit came at the right time, as our contacts will allow us to make future deals and export our products with various countries in the Gulf and in Europe, hopefully," she added.

The exhibit also helped us establish contacts in various countries such as Italy, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, according to Fehayly.

"Most of the other GCC exhibitors were still in their preliminary stages of organic farming, still figuring out strategies and looking for best recipes, while we were literally pioneers in the field."

SABIL, a two-year organic agriculture project in Lebanon mainly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) aims at supporting and reactivating BioCoop Lubnan, the first Lebanese cooperative for organic agriculture. The cooperative was funded in 2001 by a group of concerned agriculture engineers who were striving to introduce organic farming in Lebanon by strengthening the organic agriculture infrastructure and providing 'extension, demonstration and training services' to BioCoop Lubnan farmers.

As a successful result of the WVL USAID project around 160 farmers are currently enrolled in BioCoop Lubnan.

The 160 BioCoop Lubnan farmers are spread in 61 Lebanese villages covering an approximate area of 471 hectares. Those farmers are reached out to through five Extension, Demonstration and Training Centres (EDTC). The five centres are located in the north specifically in Bsharre district, the Bekaa specifically in Zahlé district, and the south which encompasses three growth poles, namely East Sidon, Nabatiyeh and Marjeyoun, and include open fields, greenhouses, nurseries and compost unit to test for improved varieties and the best combination of material (in case of compost).

BioCoop's four main goals are to function as a strong independent cooperative, fight for farmers' rights, expand further into the Lebanese national market, and most importantly to be able to establish an international market.