A Cooperative Instead of Working Abroad: How 42 Families Built a Shared Business in Their Community
When Ukraine launched its decentralization reform in 2015, the Dunayivtsi community in the Khmelnytskyi region faced a problem familiar to dozens of Ukrainian villages: there were almost no jobs, and people were leaving en masse for cities or abroad.
At the time, Mykola Ostrovskyi worked as the secretary of the city council and later became the head of the Department of Social Protection and Labor. Together with the community team, he began traveling through villages, meeting residents, and trying to understand what people needed most. Almost everywhere, he heard the same thing: there was no opportunity to earn a living in the villages.
“We saw people leaving their homes and going abroad for seasonal work because they simply had no other choice. We wanted to find a model that would allow people to earn money while staying at home,” Mykola recalls.
How the Idea for a Berry Cooperative Emerged in the Community
The idea did not appear in an office or during the drafting of another development strategy. In early 2017, representatives of a local agricultural holding invited the community team to visit cooperatives in western Ukraine and see how they operated. The delegation visited several communities in the Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. What impressed them most was a cooperative where people jointly grew berries and sold their harvest together in large wholesale batches.
After the trip, the Dunayivtsi community decided to try creating something similar locally. They began gathering residents in villages and explaining how a cooperative could work. At the time, the idea sounded unusual — and even risky — to many people. Most residents were unsure whether it was actually possible to make money from berries or successfully sell the harvest.
Despite the doubts, the community officially established the “Yahidnyi Rai” (“Berry Paradise”) cooperative in 2017. At first, village elders, cultural workers, paramedics, and other community employees joined the initiative. Together, they planted the first 15,000 raspberry seedlings in gardens and fields across the villages.
The first year was the hardest. There was almost no harvest, and people were only beginning to learn how to work with berries. But they did not want to give up. At that time, no one could have imagined that within a few years the cooperative would unite 42 families from 14 villages — and that berries would become an opportunity for many residents to stay home and earn a living in their own community.
They Waited Two Years for the First Harvest
The cooperative received its first real harvest only in 2019. Before that came months of waiting, mistakes, and constant learning. People had to learn how to properly care for the berries, harvest them at the right time, and prepare them for sale. For many villagers, this was completely new experience.
“Processing companies want high-quality berries and are willing to pay more for quality. You need to know when to harvest them, how to package them properly, and how quickly to deliver them,” explains Mykola Ostrovskyi.
The cooperative quickly realized that growing berries was only half the job. The most important challenge was organizing sales. That is why “Yahidnyi Rai” began building a system in which the cooperative itself handled logistics, consolidated large batches, and sold the products. For local families, this became critically important. If people tried to sell berries on local markets individually, prices would be much lower. Instead, the cooperative allowed them to combine their harvests and sell wholesale.
How the Cooperative Helped Families Earn a Living at Home
Today, “Yahidnyi Rai” unites 42 families from 14 villages in the Dunayivtsi community. People grow raspberries, blackberries, currants, sea buckthorn, dogwood, and hazelnuts on their own land plots, while the cooperative organizes collection and sales. To make this work efficiently, the team even developed logistics routes: a special vehicle drives to participants’ homes and collects the berries directly from them.
On average, each family cultivates up to 0.1 hectares of land. According to Mykola, one family can earn more than 100,000 UAH during a single season. For many villagers, this income helps pay for their children’s education, renovate their homes, or simply avoid searching for seasonal work abroad.
Over time, the cooperative began growing even faster. At first, the team had to rent transport for berry deliveries, but later they wrote a grant proposal and purchased their own truck. The ассортимент also expanded — in addition to raspberries, families began growing blackberries, strawberries, and black currants.
From Selling Berries to Social Entrepreneurship
The next important step was transforming the cooperative into a social enterprise. That was when Mykola joined an educational program by Platform for Social Change.
“After my first visit, I was impressed by the professionalism of the speakers. They completely changed my understanding of social entrepreneurship,” he recalls.
The program helped the team see the cooperative not simply as a way to sell berries, but as a long-term economic model for community development. After completing the program, the cooperative received grant support and purchased refrigeration equipment. This made it possible to cool and store berries when the team could not form the required sales batch within a single day.
Through cooperation with Platform for Social Change, the cooperative also began collaborating with other social enterprises. In particular, members of “Yahidnyi Rai” received 10,000 fir tree seedlings from the “Dary Hutsulshchyny” cooperative. Today, cooperative members grow and care for the trees for future export, creating an additional source of income for local families.
The Cooperative Became a Support System for the Community
Over time, “Yahidnyi Rai” became much more than just a berry-selling cooperative. Today, it unites 42 families from 14 villages and has given many people the opportunity to earn a living at home instead of leaving for seasonal work abroad.
The cooperative sells around 40 tons of berries every year, and one family can earn more than 100,000 UAH per season. For many villagers, this income helps pay for children’s education, home repairs, or simply provides stable additional earnings.
During the full-scale war, the cooperative also became a platform for mutual support. Members joined the “Victory Gardens” initiative, grew vegetables for the military, and delivered products to the front line and hospitals. Over two years, the cooperative provided defenders with dozens of tons of aid.
“People agreed that if someone needed help, we would support them,” says Mykola Ostrovskyi.
Platform for Social Change played an important role in the cooperative’s development. Through training, mentorship, and grant support, the team strengthened its model, obtained new equipment, and expanded opportunities for participants.
Today, “Yahidnyi Rai” is no longer just about berries. It is an example of how social entrepreneurship can create jobs, generate additional income, and open new opportunities for the development of Ukrainian villages.
