Scaling Up: Pinar Dairy expands its farmer training model in Turkey to increase SDG impact

BCtA member company renews its commitment with an ambitious goal to reach an additional 1350 farmers across Turkey, improving lives through increased quality and productivity

Istanbul, Turkey, 27 August, 2019 – Spurred on by the success of its previous commitments under Business Call to Action (BCtA), Turkish food and dairy company Pinar Dairy has renewed its BCtA commitment, pledging to train and support an additional 1350 rural, small-scale dairy farmers across Turkey by June 2020. Female farmers will receive specialized women-focused training, while others will be trained on animal health and feeding and financial literacy.

Pinar Dairy first joined BCtA in 2017 with a commitment to train 1250 Turkish farmers. Inspired to maintain its positive momentum after achieving this initial goal, the company has renewed its commitment to bring this total to 2600 farmers mid 2020. Since Pinar began this initiative since 2014, it has reached over 7000 dairy farmers in 13 different cities in Turkey, transforming their lives by improving quality and productivity.

Launched in 2008, BCtA aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that engage people with less than US$10 per day in purchasing power (in 2015 dollars) as consumers, producers, suppliers and distributors. Over 230 companies, ranging from multinationals to social enterprises, and working in 70 countries, have responded to BCtA by committing to improve the lives and livelihoods of millions in developing countries through access to markets, financial services, affordable healthcare, water and sanitation, education and other critical services.

While Turkey is among the top ten milk producers in the world, volumes produced by small scale farmers has been decreasing due to rising costs of equipment and feed. In addition, untreated animal health problems due to a lack of health services and substandard hygiene conditions are also challenges that small scale farmers have that can affect milk amount and quality.

Recognizing this, Pinar Dairy developed a training programme called The Future of our Milk is in Safe Hands, which is led by its social impact arm the Pinar Institute, to support the sustainability of the national dairy sector and small scale dairy farming in Turkey. The aim is to improve the conditions which enable farmers to produce higher quality milk. This in turn results in increased productivity and thus profits for the farmers. Training is conducted with the support of Turkey’s Directorates of Agriculture and Forestry, Milk Producers Unions & Cooperatives and Universities, and it is open to all dairy farmers who are interested to participate.

İdil Yiğitbaşı, Chairperson of the Board of Pinar Institute, said the success of the programme demonstrated that it was addressing a serious demand, and described it as a win-win initiative.

“Farmers want to learn techniques that are going to improve their yields and ensure their animals are healthy, and the fact that we continue to expand this programme to train more farmers is a testament to this. And from a business perspective, it makes sense to invest in this training. Greater volumes of high quality milk means profit to us, and profit to the farmers,” said Yiğitbaşı.

“This recommitment is a great example of a successful inclusive business scaling up their model to meet demand – dairy farmers living at the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid want the skills that will enable them to be more productive, which both brings profit to the company and helps to lift these farmers – and their families – out of poverty,” said Sahba Sobhani, acting Head of BCtA.

For more information:
BCtA: Aimee Brown, aimee.brown@undp.org
Pinar Dairy / Pinar Institute: Ümit Savcıgil, umit.savcigil@pinarenstitusu.org.tr

BCtA membership does not constitute a partnership with its funding and programme partners, UNDP or any UN agency.

About Business Call to Action (BCtA): Launched at the United Nations in 2008, BCtA aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact. BCtA is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UK Department for International Development (DFID), and hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For more information, please visit www.businesscalltoaction.org.

About Pinar: Founded in 1973, Pınar holds various successful brands including milk and dairy products, meat products, sales and marketing, feed and livestock and drinking water in Turkey with its employees over 5000. Pinar is the first brand which has extended the concept of healthy milk and milk products. Pinar has dedicated itself to support the milk farmers since it was founded. In this way, farmers are able to produce the most quality products for consumers while they are living a wealthy life. This reliable brand has been expanded to Middle East, Turkic Republics and Germany with the products such as fresh and long-lasting milk, yoghurt, cheese and ayran as popular yoghurt drink. For more information about Pinar and various product groups, visit http://eng.pinar.com.tr/default.aspx

About Pinar Institute: Pınar Institute is a non-profit and non-commercial organization that was established in 2013 on the idea of social responsibility with the aim of raising public awareness of food, health, nutrition and contributing to healthy social development.