Saldus home producers’ cooperative sells local goods through vending machines too
The “Provinces produkti” cooperative of home producers in Saldus municipality has 11 members and over 150 partners. Besides its shop in Saldus market, it sells local products via three vending machines and is trying to enter school food procurement.
A cooperative of home food producers in Latvia’s Saldus municipality, “Provinces produkti”, sells its products not only in a shop at Saldus market but also through three self-service vending machines in Saldus and Riga. The cooperative takes over selling for small rural producers so they have more time for production. It illustrates how small farms in Latvia look for new sales channels.
From a farm building to a cooperative
More than five years ago, Agnese Arne-Štencele, who raises beef cattle, set up a small meat shop in a building on her farm. Gradually, products from neighbouring home producers appeared on the shelves too. As the group grew, a shared legal entity was needed, and in 2021 the group took over “Provinces produkti”, a cooperative registered near Valmiera that had suspended operations. In November 2023 it moved into permanent premises at Saldus market.
The cooperative now has 11 members, more than 150 partners and about 3,000 product items. One successful line is festive gift sets, such as smoked beef chili sausages with a chili sauce. Christmas set orders from companies across Latvia have become one of the busiest periods of the year.
School procurement
The cooperative has obtained an organic certificate and is trying to enter public food procurement for educational institutions, but it faces competition from wholesale distributors. The green public procurement requirements were abolished in mid-summer. The cooperative has calculated that delivery pays off if a single invoice reaches at least 70 euros. Agreement has been reached on four product groups: beef bones, potatoes, bread and organic buckwheat.
Vending machines
The cooperative’s head got the idea on a study trip to Austria. Using funding from the EU short supply chain support programme, it bought three refrigerated machines from the company “Vendings.lv”. One stands in Saldus by a “Maxima” supermarket, another in the Ministry of Agriculture building in Riga, and the third has been in the “Domina” shopping centre since May. The machines are restocked weekly.
In Saldus, chaga infusion has been unexpectedly popular, including among customers from Lithuania, while in Riga buyers prefer sheep’s milk yogurt, ayran and smoked sausages. The top seller is freeze-dried honey cake. To encourage use, videos about how the products are made are shown on the machine screens.
Rolands Feldmanis, chairman of the board of the Latvian Agricultural Cooperatives Association, says such regional models could be replicated in other municipalities.
