Karawilaella export crops suppliers cooperative society ceremoniously opened their pepper processing center on August 21st 2024, with the participation of the members and the invited officials representing the Department of Cooperative, Monaragala District SANASA Union, Small Enterprise Development , Badalkumbura Vidatha centre Divisional secretariat office, SDB bank and SANASA International.

This is the third supplier cooperative society that was newly formulated with the assistance of SMART farmer programme (APFP/FO4A). The farmers of Karavilaella village of Badalkumbura were assisted by SANASA to organize into a cooperative society. They were exposed to several cooperatives that were previously assisted by the smart farmer programme. Once the farmers formulated their team, SEFEC -SANASA business incubation centre assisted them to develop a business plan to collect, process and sell crops, primarily pepper.

The female leaders of the society have been facing many challenges both within the village as well as with the cooperative officials. They were also struggling to access funds as they were unable to get their society registered for over two years. However despite the challenges the chairperson with the support of few of her committee members and the enterprise development officer of SEFEC was able to mobilize 30 farmers who bought shares of the new cooperative. They were also able to mobilize funds within the membership to buy their pepper processing machine which costed them 1.4 million. SANASA International provided the cooperative Rs. 7 million to buy pepper from their members. The cooperative then added value and supplied the dried pepper and white pepper to the market at a higher price.
The society was able to recover the capital cost within 2 months and organized the ceremonious opening to celebrate their achievement. SANASA international and SEFEC are proud to be part of this transformation and looking forward to witness the society going to greater heights with their members.