Period of implementation of the project: 

2011-2020

Challenge: 

• To support local food producers in Ukraine;
• To provide small Ukrainian farms with access to a large retail network;
• To acquaint Ukrainians with products made by craft producers;
• To teach small producers how to turn their food project into a successful business that will be attractive to retail chains;
• To build trust in the high quality of the product from craft manufacturers.

Solution: 

Creation of a platform that will unite, support, and develop food industry entrepreneurs participating in “Lavka Tradytsii” within the framework of the Silpo network.

Since 2011, our team has been looking for new heroes of the food industry throughout Ukraine: we meet, check their products, production site, and documents, help with marketing, and selection of the right range. Departments of quality control, logistics, and lawyers work with the participants, helping with documents, meeting standards, teaching proper storage procedures, labeling, etc. The participants enjoy loyal financial conditions selling produce in supermarkets, and they are not subject to minimum supply requirements.

The Project Lavka Traditsiy is aimed at promoting the local product among consumers. This task is solved with the help of local gastronomy festivals, agritourism project with trips to farms, and constant promotional activities inside supermarkets.

Results: 

The number of manufacturers from 2011 to 2020 increased from 5 to 145, and the number of shops with “shop-in-shop” from 3 to 50. Since 2015, we have launched a project of a cheese factory “behind the glass” inside stores, which includes collaborations of cheesemakers in different regions. 

Since 2015, participants of “Lavka Tradytsii” have been supplying natural raw materials from their regions to their own cheese factories called “Chizarnia” located in Silpo supermarkets.

Since 2017, Silpo stores in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, and Odesa have been hosting True & Local food festivals, where guests can attend lectures, workshops and meet with producers. The events help us discover hyperlocal suppliers who make produce exclusively for their regions.

We host weekly food tastings called “Producers’ Treats” in the supermarkets, and since 2019 there are “Agromandry” tours to the farms.

In 2019, we launched an educational project “Food Prosvita”, which enables producers to run test sales in the Silpo network. Silpo has a grant fund as well: our first “students” were a family from Somalia engaged in the production of sauces, who launched their own business in the Odessa region with the United Nations support.

Category: Prosperity

Company: Silpo

About the company: 

Silpo is one of the largest supermarket chains in Ukraine. As of May 1, 2020, Silpo runs 260 supermarkets, including 4 Le Silpo delicatessen. It is part of Fozzy Group, one of the largest trade and industrial groups in Ukraine.

Sustainable Development Goals

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