Agriculture

Trading activity in rural areas is encouraged and supported in Lithuania. Residents of a province are encouraged to engage in non-agricultural activities. Support of local shops, kindergartens and day centres shows the way the activities that are not related to agriculture are supported in rural areas.

Small cosy shops where one can buy locally grown or manufactured products are the future of Lithuanian rural areas. Therefore with the help of the support funds from the European Union and Lithuania residents of the country can already equip their shops and purchase necessary equipment.

Village is inseparable from the shop
The region of Tuscany in Italy or Bavaria in Germany cannot be imagined without small shops in small towns where you can feel the smell of freshly baked buns, locally grown vegetables or fruit. Small provincial shops attract customers by the products and the culinary heritage that is characteristic of that region alone, offer one to taste freshly made cheeses shrouded in legends or a ham made of locally bred pigs. The tourists who travel past these places know that they can get authentic products only in the shops belonging to the local inhabitants rather than in large trading centres.

This vision is seen in Lithuania too. Though trading centres that dictate fashions in trade and taste have taken root here, there are lots of people with initiative in small towns that have their own business.

Trade should increase
Unfortunately, shops of trading networks have appeared in small towns too, and most often they have nothing to do with the local growers or manufacturers.

However, soon the number of cosy small shops in a Lithuanian province should increase, and the country people will have one more possibility to engage in non-agricultural activities.

Novelties have already appeared in the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013. Farmers of the county are going to be encouraged to undertake trading activity by making use of the European Union support and the Lithuanian national funds.

According to the rules of the measures “Diversification into non-agricultural activities for farm families” and “Support for business creation and development”, people in rural areas are encouraged to receive additional income by engaging in alternative business, for example, baking buns or sewing clothes without terminating agricultural activities being carried out.

There appeared more activities to be supported
The farmers will be able to make use of the support received in setting up a shop or buying equipment necessary to engage in trade. Last autumn the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania Kazys Starkevičius signed the new rules in which the list of non-agricultural activities to be supported was extended.

Farmers who seek to engage in retail trade shall have the right to make use of the European Union support.

“We notice that interest in support is really great”, the Vice-Minister of Agriculture Mindaugas Kuklierius said to the mass media.

The farmers who will have a wish to sell their own products in small markets that have become especially popular recently or who are already doing that shall have the right to apply for support. They shall be able to purchase showcase refrigerators or any other equipment that is necessary to engage in trade.

The negotiations ended in victory
Recently the so-called farmers’ markets have become especially popular in Lithuanian cities and towns where city dwellers can always find fresher and more natural vegetables, fruit and meat products. It has even become fashionable in Lithuania to buy products in such small markets because it is believed that products sold there are healthier than those offered in the shops of large trading centres.

Such a farmers’ market is open even in the very centre of the capital city of Vilnius, next to the entrance to the Ministry of Agriculture. This shows the current attitude of the authorities towards the farmers and their products. However, up till now the rural population had to acquire necessary equipment and machinery by themselves. From now on acquisition of these things shall be financed by the European Union and Lithuania.

In their turn farmers or agricultural partnerships are encouraged to establish or renovate shops in their places of residence.

According to Mindaugas Kuklierius, earlier the European Commission did not allow trading activities to be supported from the funds of the Rural Development Programme. However, Lithuania initiated the negotiations, which ended in its victory. Specialised shops in rural areas where people will be able to buy products grown and produced in Lithuania will be supported in Lithuania.

There are nice examples
“If a farmer wants to set up a shops and sell his/her production in a small town, he will surely be able to make use of the European Union support. There are nice examples already – near Radviliškis there is a shop, which sells bread and confectionary products baked right there.
It is this entrepreneurship that we want to encourage, especially if shops are established on the roads where they could expect to have more customers.

It is clear that when assessing applications attention should be paid to prevention of an unhealthy competition. Imagine what would happen if in a settlement with a population of one thousand people farmers would want to build five shops”, says Mindaugas Kuklierius.

According to the Vice-Minister, there are some exceptions: if a farmer is going to sell alcoholic drinks in his shop, he shall not be given any support; he will have to equip that counter at his own expense.

Also, retail trade in fruit, berries and vegetables in specialised shops will be supported if an inhabitant engages in growing this production and sells agricultural products grown by the Lithuanian manufacturers.

Decline in the country is less dramatic than in town
Trades people in a province state that they cannot compete in their income with the large trading centres, however, they are happy that last year the decline was less dramatic in the countryside than that of the entire market of trade. According to the trades people, this is because the income of the country people during the crisis changed less significantly than that of the city dwellers. “People in a province do not live on their salaries. The main income in rural areas is the pension and products, which are sold to the buyers-up. For example, prices of buying up milk increased in 2009”, Robertas Miliauskas who runs several shops in Utena district explained the nuances of trade in a province. Furthermore, a village shop performs an important social and communication function to the local inhabitants. It is near the shop that neighbours meet and discuss the realities of their life. The businessman of the district is sure that it is necessary to expand. However, Robertas Miliauskas does not count how many new shops he would like to have. He would establish as many shops as many attractive sites for them he could find. In spring he intends to renew a search for trading areas.

The wish of the rural population
According to Mindaugas Kuklierius, amendments to the measures of the programme “Quality of life in rural areas and diversification of the rural economy” have not been made by chance. It was sought to encourage the rural population to make a more active use of the support.
Besides, requests that trading activities in rural areas should be supported came from the province of the country. “We took measures to encourage entrepreneurship in rural areas. Frankly speaking, the rural population are always more cautious from the point of view of business, however, I am sure that the situation is going to change”, the Vice-minister said.

Intermediaries shall be refused
Today more and more cattle and pig breeders realise their production in general farmers’ markets, others establish them by themselves and yet others sell their production on their own farms or sell it to the buyers to advance orders.

Arūnas Čimolonskas who manages a farm in the village of Bernotai in Panevėžys district thanks the Minister of Agriculture who advised him to equip a slaughterhouse on his farm and sell meat and its products without any intermediaries.

”I had a serious problem with delayed settlements. For example, for two sold pigs the processors often paid only three months later, besides, buying-up prices were really low. If it had not been for the Minister’s advise, most probably I would have gone bankrupt”, Arūnas Čimolonskas recalls the hard times. At the present time more than 400 pigs are slaughtered in the slaughterhouse per month. Furthermore, next to the slaughterhouse there is a meat processing shop. Fresh meat rolls are made, and sausages and hams are smoked there. And what is more, the farmer decided to sell production of his farm without any intermediaries – he opened a small roofed market in Panevėžys. The results are very good.

”Trade without any intermediaries improved my financial standing. I can absorb the European Union support much faster, pay back the credits taken”, Arūnas Čimolonskas says.

Usually main production is sold out in the market before lunch. In the morning lines of buyers form at the counter. People who have once bought products made by the farmer return there again. Support of trade in rural areas will help such farmers as Arūnas Čimolonskas open their own trading points.

They will be able to establish kindergartens too
Another great novelty is that the rural population will be able to expand nurseries, nursery schools and kindergartens, children care day centres, stationary nursing institutions, as well as old people care homes and care homes for the disabled for the support funds.

State-owned kindergartens still operate in a Lithuanian village; however, these kindergartens are being closed down because there are not enough children. Therefore small private kindergartens with all necessary infrastructure are needed. At the present time day centres operate in the soviet houses of culture in small towns. It is thought that the support offered will considerably improve the situation in this sphere too.