Tatarstan Herbal Tea: Health Benefits and Additional Income for Seniors
An unusual agricultural consumer cooperative operates in the Laishevsky district - it is engaged in the procurement and processing of medicinal herbs, berries and fruits.
“Tatarstan is a republic of tea lovers,” says the chairman of cooperative Ramil Yarullin with a smile. - It is known that the average resident of Tatarstan drinks 6-7 cups of tea daily, which is 20% more than in Russia in general. My friends and I are no exception. But once we wanted variety, we switched from black tea to herbal teas, and we liked it. Both tasty and healthy. And only then the strong interest grew into a business.
Cooperative "Zagotovitel" was registered in the spring 2019. And now there are already 94 shareholders in it. These are mainly peasant farms and personal subsidiary plots, individual entrepreneurs from 5 regions of the country - Tatarstan, Crimea, Adygea, Altai, Moscow region. All of them are engaged in the cultivation or harvesting of herbs, as well as berries and fruits.
“I joined the cooperative in 2019,” says Galina Afanasyeva, a resident of the Troitsky village of Laishevsky district. - Our house is in the forest, so there is no vegetable garden or sheds. What else can I do, as a retraitee? So I collect wild plants. This year, I collected, dried and sold the leaves of raspberries, hazel, willow-tea and lime blossom to the cooperative for 50 thousand rubles. Not a superfluous addition to your pension.
Today the cooperative "Zagotovitel" has 2 production buildings and several pieces of equipment for processing herbs, berries and fruits. This year, in dried form, more than 400 tons of raw materials were purchased from shareholders for processing, or almost 4000 tons of raw material, including apples, pears, chokeberry, juniper, viburnum, hawthorn, etc. Most of the raw materials are processed in their own workshops, and the surplus is sold to tea factories and a plant for the production of plant extracts. In order to improve the quality of products, control of raw materials is carried out. Moreover, both the harvest itself and the process of growing raw materials are controlled.
- When joining a cooperative, a shareholder gets a guaranteed sale of his products, knowledge of growing technology, procurement and transportation of harvested or grown products. And this is an additional source of income for families, - says Ramil Yarullin.
He is grateful to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan for support. Since raw materials are harvested in a short period of time: late summer - early autumn, and are consumed throughout the year, the cooperative has a need to replenish capital to buy out all raw materials. Taking part in the competition for a grant, cooperative "Zagotovitel" was among the winners and within the framework of the National Project "Small and Medium Enterprises and Support for Entrepreneurial Initiatives" received budget funds for further development.