Project Snapshot:
Total Funding: $6,120,056*
Project Duration: May 2015-May 2020
Implementing Partners: Argona

*$1,500,000 from USAID; $4,620,056 from our four private sector partners: Diaspora-owned Brajlovic, based in Vienna, and BiH-based Brams from Sarajevo, Natura Food from Bijeljina, and Plant from Tuzla.

The Challenge

With more than 2 million individuals living abroad, the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) diaspora is equal to 51% of the population living within the country (3.8 million), which makes BiH the top emigrating country in Europe’s emerging markets. BiH diaspora is distributed among many countries, with large diaspora settled in Europe and the former Yugoslavia, the United States, Canada and Australia. These communities maintain their commitment to family and friends back home: remittances totaled approx. $3 billion in 2013, equal to 13% of the BiH GDP. Agriculture is one of the strongest sectors for economic development in BiH. But expanding BiH agriculture, with its base of relatively small-scale landholdings, requires small holders to focus on high-value agricultural crops for EU markets.

Our Program

The Diaspora Engagement: Alliance for Agribusiness Development project contributes to the development of rural economies in targeted municipalities through agriculture. Production of cornichons, a high-value crop grown by small holder farmers, is particularly well suited for expansion. The Alliance focuses on leveraging domestic and diaspora direct investment to increase production and export of cornichons from BiH to Germany and Austria and to generate jobs and income in rural areas.

Implementation

The Alliance provides technical assistance to produce and process cornichons, and technology and logistic support to ensure that BiH growers maintain their comparative advantage and meet increasing demand. It will upgrade the overall value chain by linking small scale producers to the EU market. The Alliance cooperates with municipalities in both BiH entities: Srebrenica, Zivinice, Zepce, Zavidovici, Tesanj, Teslic, Bratunac, Zvornik, Bijeljina and Mostar, and the flood-affected municipalities of Maglaj and Doboj.

By partnering with the private sector, we triple the amount of funding and thus impact. In addition, the activity benefits from the industry knowledge of our private sector diaspora partners, while partnering with them around mutually beneficial goals will ensure sustainability.

Expected Results

At the end of this project, we expect to:

• Increase the volume of production and export of cornichons in BiH;
• Create more than 5,100 full-time and seasonal jobs in rural areas;
• Provide income for more than 1,600 participating farmers; and
• Increase diaspora direct investment.