The overall goal is the contribution to the establishment of integrated and collaborative models for supporting Serbian processing industry to increase the sale and export of processed fruit and vegetables.
The specific goal of the project is to strengthen competitiveness of Serbian fruits and vegetables sector through systematic support to production, branding and better access to domestic and international market for small and medium enterprises in southern Serbian through development of PL products for retail.
The aim of activities during the project is to select 11 SMEEs based on conducted research and established criteria and provide them with necessary knowledge and practice of private labeling through vocational trainings and mentoring sessions, and then establish cooperation with retail chains and contract sales.
One of the important results of the project, in addition to direct support to companies in establishing cooperation with retail chains, is the establishment of cooperation with PLMA – an organization that gathers more than 4,400 member companies around the world involved in private label, but also networking through establishment of the association “Serbian Private Label Association” and an online platform https://serbianpl.rs/en/
Participation in the project was valuable for companies in terms of:
- Development of new and improved existing products and process optimization;
- Uniformity and product quality control;
- Increasing productivity and production efficiency;
- Contracting product placement;
- Vertical and horizontal networking .
The project was implemented with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Project.