The Union of Cooperative Associations established a greenhouse project in the town of Tweinah in the northwest of Hasakah in 2022. The project, covering an area of 3,705 acres, is cultivated with cucumbers and tomatoes and is located near the Washokani camp for the IDPs of the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain).
The project includes 28 greenhouses and provides job opportunities for three families. The goal of the project is to secure a portion of the local market’s demand at competitive prices.
Berivan Reshk, an agricultural engineer supervising the project, says, “Each greenhouse produces around 16 tons of cucumbers and approximately eight tons of tomatoes during Summer. However, the production lessens in Winter due to the cold weather and the limited available resources.”
Reshk points out that they began marketing the products in January 2024 after starting cultivation in November 2023.
“We sell a portion of our products to one of the AANES’s cooperative associations in Hasakah, whereas the bigger portion of the products are sold in the local market.”
The prices of the products are cheaper than the imported ones. “For instance, a kilogram of cucumbers is sold in the markets for 10,000 SYP, but we sell it for 8,000 SYP,” adding they aim to ease the burden on the people,” she says.
The Union of Cooperative Associations also plans to establish a community market where products of small projects are sold to citizens at lower prices.