Need to remove capital "bottlenecks" for cooperatives managed by women

Despite its advantage of being located right in the cinnamon growing area, with abundant raw materials, the capital “bottleneck” has made it difficult for the Tra My - Minh Phuc Cinnamon Cooperative (Tra Giang Commune, Bac Tra My District, Quang Nam Province) to expand investment and develop production. How to access capital from credit institutions is also a concern of many cooperatives managed by women in Quang Nam Province.

Really want to professionalize but…

Bac Tra My District (Quang Nam Province) has 2,000 hectares of cinnamon, with an annual output of more than 400 tons. Taking advantage of this local strength, in 2018, Tra My - Minh Phuc Cinnamon Cooperative was established to process and trade cinnamon products. To date, the Cooperative has 18 members, with the Board of Directors all being women.

The cooperative cooperates with 26 households in the commune to build a raw material area of ​​56 hectares meeting GACP standards for processing. Currently, the cooperative produces 20 products from cinnamon such as: Cinnamon powder, disinfectant solution, room spray solution, cinnamon bark, cinnamon soap, etc.

In particular, the cooperative's cinnamon dishwashing liquid and floor cleaner products won the Second Prize at the regional finals and the Encouragement Prize at the National Finals of the "Women's Startups Promoting Indigenous Resources 2023" contest organized by the Vietnam Women's Union.

The journey to achieve these results was not easy, in which capital mobilization was a "difficult problem" for the cooperative. Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet (residing in village 3, Tra Giang commune, Bac Tra My district), Director of Tra My - Minh Phuc Cinnamon Cooperative, said that although the cooperative is located right in the cinnamon growing area, due to the complex terrain, the cinnamon forest is far from the national highway, so the cost of transporting raw materials is very high.

With increasingly strict market standards, the cooperative must invest in machinery and equipment to upgrade its production process. "Recently, we invested in an essential oil extraction system, with a total value of more than 1 billion VND. To have such a large amount of money, we had to mobilize from members. Some people even had to mortgage their personal assets to contribute.

Members of Tra My-Minh Phuc Cinnamon Cooperative carry out stages of producing products from cinnamon trees.

After buying the machine, we ran out of money, so some steps like labeling and packaging, although we really wanted to professionalize, we still had to do them manually," Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet shared.

Strengthening capital mobilization skills

Pursuant to Decision No. 01/QD-TTg dated January 3, 2023 of the Prime Minister approving the Project "Supporting cooperatives managed by women, creating jobs for female workers by 2030" (hereinafter referred to as Project 01) and the direction of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, in 2023, the Quang Nam Provincial Women's Union advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a plan to implement Project 01.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Head of the Family, Society and Economy Department (Quang Nam Provincial Women's Union), said that in the process of supporting women to improve their qualifications and capacity in managing and operating cooperatives, the Quang Nam Provincial Women's Union received many opinions and proposals for developing cooperatives managed by women.

Among them, the issue that receives the most attention is how to make cooperatives managed by women eligible to borrow capital from credit institutions and banks.

Board of Directors of Tra My - Minh Phuc Cinnamon Cooperative with cinnamon products

"The process of building a loan application and proving repayment capacity at the bank must comply with state regulations. However, in reality, many cooperatives do not have liquid assets to mortgage. If personal assets are mortgaged, the person must be truly dedicated and have consensus within the cooperative to be able to mobilize funds," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa.

To contribute to solving this problem, the Women's Union of Quang Nam province has advised on the implementation of Project 01 in conjunction with the implementation of criteria in the province's new rural construction. Accordingly, the Union at all levels continues to promote credit entrustment activities with the Social Policy Bank, coordinate with the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development - and other commercial banks in the province to find solutions to support cooperatives in accessing credit.

The Provincial Women's Union also focuses on providing knowledge and management and operational skills to members of the cooperative leadership board managed by women in order to improve the understanding, knowledge, capacity, initiative and agility of the cooperative leadership board in mobilizing capital for production.

Regarding the issue of connecting the market for the products of cooperatives, in recent times, the Provincial Women's Union has mobilized cooperatives to participate in displaying their products at fairs and projects. However, due to the characteristics of Quang Nam province, which has many mountainous areas and ethnic minorities, the connection work has not been favorable.

To further promote the effectiveness of Project 01, the leaders of the Women's Union of Quang Nam province hope that the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union will organize many meetings to exchange and share experiences of cooperatives managed and operated by women to operate effectively; create opportunities for connection, cooperation, trade promotion, and introduction of products of women from different regions as well as with women from other countries, and support women's products to reach further.

Currently, Quang Nam province has 103 cooperatives managed by women with 309 female members and 617 female workers. The Quang Nam Provincial Women's Union sets a goal of consolidating and improving the quality and efficiency of operations for at least 45 cooperatives, 20 cooperative groups, and affiliated groups managed and operated by women, supported by the Union at all levels; creating stable jobs for 300 members and female workers in cooperatives, 200 female workers in cooperative groups; consulting and supporting the establishment of 15 new cooperatives managed and operated by women, creating jobs for female workers; 100% of the Union's staff working to support the development of collective economy and cooperatives are trained...

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/can-go-nut-that-ve-von-cho-hop-tac-xa-do-phu-nu-quan-ly-20240923123510346.htm