FED invest is well known for many years now among its membership in the village of Gradisht and Spolat of Divjaka Lagoon, where one of the first members of the SCA is Kudret Doga. His activity is marked by the planting of field vegetables. The Divjaka area is one of the most fertile and prosperous lands in Albania.

To be precise, it was back in 2005 when Kudret set out to expand the activity, building solar greenhouses for growing field vegetables such as red pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, which were on the cutting-edge of technology at that time. He used the funds to expand the activity of greenhouses. Given the high-yielding activity, Kudret went on to expand the greenhouse areas over the years.

As part of the ongoing work of FED invest to increase the capacity of our farmers, Kudret Doga was selected to go on a field trip to the Netherlands together with a group of farmers from the area. This trip would serve to gain hands-on experience in the agricultural sector in one of the leading countries in agricultural technology. Kudret has also recently built a warehouse to collect the area's agricultural produce and has signed contracts with foreign entrepreneurs to export to neighboring countries.

The village of Gradisht has the largest concentration of solar greenhouses spanning about 65 ha, also one of the largest at national scale. Kudret decided to buy a machine for packing and packaging of agricultural produce, which are exported outside Albania.

Kudret has been funded on a continuous basis by FED invest. His business has grown into 1.2 ha of solar greenhouses, a warehouse which collects the agricultural produce of the area and has employed 10 full-time and seasoned employees at the pick-up point.

He is a decent man, totally committed to business and family. During the meeting, he says, he will continue to expand his business. He is a role model for the area where he lives in and manages his businesses with utmost dedication.

Meanwhile, the farmers in the village of Gradisht form the nucleus of a cooperative that is taking shape in their area with the assistance of FED invest, in partnership with Rabobank, and Kudret is one of them.

We would like to single out one member from the village of Suk, the region of Fier.  Bashkim has established a close relationship with FED invest which goes back to 2009. He stays in touch with the Credit Officer of the area who helps him make the next investment. At the outset, he bought 5 cows and rebuilt the greenhouse. He says the beginning was pretty hard, he did not have much money to undertake a proper activity the way he had thought it to be, so he was merely working the land he got after the ‘90s.

But, as luck would have it, he dared take a tractor to work the land. Of course, he did not have all the money to buy it at once, but with the financial support of FED invest he became the owner of the tractor. The proceeds from the greenhouse and milk were used to upgrade the surrounding farm, which enabled us to build a modern greenhouse. Today, Bashkim owns a 3 thousand m2- greenhouse for growing vegetables which is very profitable so far as well as a stable with 15 cows.

This member has started his activity by investing small credit amounts and went on to increase the demand for larger financing down the path to expansion, fulfilling the intrinsic objective, formalization of his activity that enabled him to trade his produce as a farmer with NIPT and make monthly milk sales with regular invoices at local collectors.

Agimi lives with his family in the village of Bubullimë, about 15 km off the city of Lushnja, at the centre of Myzeqe. With the division of agricultural land under Law no 7501, they acquired an agricultural land, which he runs and works together with his family. In the ‘90s, Agim worked as emigrant in Greece in the hope of building a better life, also developing experience in the agricultural sector in a more developed country.  In 2009, Agim decided to return from emigration and invest in his village. At the outset, he invested the savings in building a new home "… like everyone else I dreamt of building a new house to improve the livelihood for my family and children," says Agim.

Having built the house, Agimi thought about the ways of generating income to support his family and in 2009 he requested financing from the FED invest offices in the village of Bubullimë. Agim invested them, on top of his income, in construction of 2 000 m2 greenhouse for growing vegetables. But he did not stop there.

With the proceeds from the sales season, he again turned to the FED invest expertise and decided to expand the greenhouse investment area. So financing after financing, together with the profits made from the household business, he went on to build 1 ha of greenhouses. Such a move helped him build his confidence and grow to become one of the most successful farmers in the area at present.

In April 2016, a powerful storm swept through the region of Lushnja, damaging the  greenhouse plastic covering disrupting the business and throwing into question its future. But Agim happened to be part of the greenhouse insurance project and in turn was compensated for all the damage caused to the greenhouse.

I had no knowledge of insurance products whatsoever and my involvement in this project seemed like a bureaucratic red tape, but when bad weather wreaked havoc on the greenhouses, that "little card" came into play and served us to repair the damage. The truth is that through all the financing period, the FED invest staff have stood by us and assisted with any financial problem related to the investment, "- says Agim.

Today, Agim Mita is a success story, who runs 6 000 m2 of solar greenhouses and highly experienced in the application of technology for the cultivation of tomatoes and cucumbers. Local farmers often turn to him for information about high-yielding hybrids, high technology and quality pesticides that Agim uses.