Organic and domestic vegetables, produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We can say a rarity. But we visited the social enterprise “Greens” in the Hotonj settlement near Sarajevo, which produces organic, high-quality micro-vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. However, they are not only special in that. The company “Greens”, in addition to professional staff, graduated agronomists, gives young people with disabilities the opportunity to actively participate in the open labor market.
It all started in 2018, says the company’s director, Vedad Vajzović. The company was founded by the non-governmental organization ProREHA, which aims to provide professional training to hard-to-employ categories in the Federation of BiH.
“In 2018, we realized that people with intellectual disabilities cannot really hold a place on the open labor market in companies that are extremely dynamic and whose environment is quite stressful. Then we decided to create a company that would in some way be a company in the true sense of the word, but would provide an opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities to integrate. Then we did some research and realized that working in a natural environment, working with plants, is an ideal job for people with intellectual disabilities because it does not require a lot of stress, it calms them down, relaxes them. In return, people with intellectual disabilities are full of love and give love to those plants, because plants are living beings and they need love and attention. In addition, there is of course the profession. We simply do the right things in the right way,” emphasizes Director Vajzović.
This company has been operating successfully for seven years. It currently has five full-time employees and three seasonal workers. Like many others, the most difficult period was the corona period. They were left without a market, because 80 percent of their market was hotels and restaurants. However, it was then that this team came up with an idea that caused only positive reactions. They used the crisis as an opportunity.
“Since we had a lot of material that we bought before the corona, we had substrate, we had seeds, pots. We decided to create a campaign, to design a planting set that we called “Plant yourself”, and we called the campaign “Stay home and plant your favorite plant”. We marketed that product through wholesale store chains and then we encountered a great response,” Vedad explains.
Thus, they overcame a very difficult period in an innovative and creative way. Currently, the company “Greens” operates in five cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina through four major retail chains: Konzum and Mercator, Bingo, Crvena jabuka and Tropik. Many socially responsible companies have recognized the quality of the products and have branded the “Plant it yourself” sets for their company, which makes them different from the others.
Although “Greens” has won many awards, the awards for its work have not been recognized by our state because the incentives do not include the urban agriculture that this company is engaged in.
“Unfortunately, this has not yet been recognized by classical agriculture and legislators, so we have absolutely no support from that side. On the other hand, “Greens” is a social enterprise and we do not yet have a law on social entrepreneurship and they do not recognize us in the law. On the third hand, through support for the employment of people with disabilities, a protected labor market is stimulated, not an open labor market. We do not fit into these outdated mechanisms of ours that have not allowed us to grow for years, but we are growing ourselves. We have joined the market competition where we manage to be self-sustainable, so we survive in the market and we are satisfied,” explains Vajzović.
We can say that “Greens” is apparently a few steps ahead of our country, which is not that difficult. This is also confirmed by the production manager of this company, Haris Kanlić, who has been part of the successful team from the very beginning. He emphasizes that the goal is to implement all the innovations that are present in the world through the company “Greens”, through various projects. Kanlić emphasizes that he knows of only one company in Zagreb that works on the same principle as this company, which shows how much they are ahead of many.
“When we started working and practicing urban agriculture in 2018, urban agriculture had not yet begun to be studied at the Faculty of Agriculture. It only came into being in 2020, so we are certainly two to three years ahead of the times in Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of production and we are making the most of it,” Kanlić points out.
During our visit to this company, we met Kenan and Nisvet, who are employees of the “Greens” company. They emphasized that they are very satisfied with working in such a company, as well as with the entire team. Haris explained to us that they have used the best world technologies in all segments.
“When we decided to work with agriculture, we came up with the idea of being different from others and improving it. When we talked to the clients we work with now, they expressed their desire to have it all year round. To ensure this, we had to approach the development of new technologies for urban agriculture, vertical systems, and then we created a room for the production of microgreens, and then we moved to a container. We were primarily guided by the customer’s request to produce 365 days a year,” Haris told us.
The first herb they started with was Italian basil, and we asked why that particular herb. It is one of the best selling products.
“He is in high demand. Chefs are looking for it as a spice for pesto, pizzas, to add to dishes and it is somehow the best way to show the love and attention of people with disabilities in production. When it is very green, we know that a lot of love has been given to grow it and then from 2023 we made a container strictly for the production of Italian basil in the winter product and the conditions in which it is grown are phenomenal. Especially in the winter period, it is very difficult to find winter basil anywhere to produce it because it is also difficult to import, it is very sensitive during transport and it is best to produce it locally”, answered Kanlić.
Its production takes three months. Although the greenhouse is currently not in operation due to winter, many innovations have been introduced into its operation.
“We work on vertical production tables, we have an automatic watering system where we water five thousand pots at a time in ten minutes with one press. In this way, we have made work in the greenhouse easier, and when it is very hot, we also have a fan that cools the space. All innovations have made work easier for people with disabilities in production. We do not bend over, we do everything at arm’s length, so our work is much easier. Although agriculture is considered to be a laborious production, we do everything to make it easier,” explained Haris Kanlić, production manager.
And all this, this team does it themselves. They have already shown many times that they are the best at it. In 2024, they received the award for the leader of sustainable development in the segment of microenterprises and ecology. But as you can see in the picture, this is just one of the awards during their work.
Written by: Maja Popović
This story was made possible through the generous support of the American people through the Local Works program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The author and the Peacebuilding Network are solely responsible for the content of this story. The views expressed in this story do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
