ZENICA, AUGUST 25 (ONASA) – The “EU4AGRI” project brings you another successful story about the realized investment of the European Union. Thanks to the European Union, the City Market in Zenica shined in a new guise, providing domestic producers of agricultural and food products and other products with more favorable working conditions, and better and safer service and a more pleasant environment for customers.
Whether you are looking for different fruits and vegetables, homemade cheeses, milk, meat and other healthy foods or you are looking for a unique souvenir, the colorful City Market in the heart of Zenica is the place where your search ends.
The market space in Zenica has been decorated for decades with the products of small domestic producers from all over the city, even the most distant ones, who every morning equip their stands with fresh products and welcome customers with a smile. At the end of the day, they hope that they have provided their fellow citizens with the highest quality products, so that customers will keep coming back to them.
“The market in Zenica is the only place where small agricultural producers and producers of meat and meat products can market their products. All of them live in suburban settlements where there are also lands where they are engaged in agriculture or animal husbandry and trades”, they point out from the City of Zenica.
The green market in Zenica is not the only one that received financial support from the EU for the improvement and development of rural/local market infrastructure. With non-refundable EU funds in the total amount of 1.5 million BAM, markets in 12 cities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina will be improved and arranged.
In this way, the goal is to ensure better conditions for the placement of goods in markets, while respecting hygiene and sanitary requirements and the microbiological correctness of all products on sale.
In the course of the project, the City Market of Zenica was equipped with 115 new mobile tables for the sale of products and 2 new containers for the disposal of plant waste. The space is additionally enriched with 20 wooden houses and 21 refrigerated showcases that are at the service of sellers of dairy and meat products, as well as small producers who have the continuity of selling their products at fairs and exhibitions, as well as souvenir producers.
“In the past period, such houses were rented from commercial companies, which was expensive and impractical, and increased the costs of the tenants, while at the same time there was uncertainty in terms of the availability of stands when needed”, explained the City of Zenica.
Mobile stands will enable more frequent and cheaper organization of street fairs at the market in Zenica, which will give local producers of souvenirs and handicrafts the opportunity to present and sell their products and, ultimately, influence the improvement of the city’s image.
The great importance of this project is reflected in the fact that dozens of producers of domestic products were provided with important training in the field of sanitary minimums, food safety and HACCP standards, as well as training in proper product packaging to ensure the complete correctness of the food offered to citizens.
The City Administration of the City of Zenica points out that the improvement of the infrastructure of the market contributes not only to the quality of the work of producers and a better offer, but also to the reduction of the costs of the constant maintenance of the market and the consumption of electricity. Thus, as they say, today’s market in Zenica is more energy efficient, better quality, more functional, and more advanced in terms of health and hygiene.
The producers are particularly pleased that people with disabilities now have access to their stands. The market area is equipped with tactile markings that make it easier for blind and partially sighted people to recognize where they are, anti-slip surfaces are installed on the approach for people with disabilities, while at the main entrance to the market there is a handrail for the elderly, infirm and people with limited mobility.
Close to 50 producers who have improved their offer at new stands, dozens of small handicraft producers, but also all citizens of Zenica who have the opportunity to buy safe products whose perishability is reduced to a minimum, benefit directly from the arrangement of the Zenica City Market.
The arrangement of markets throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina through the EU4AGRI project will enable a better market infrastructure for hundreds of end users, which will affect the strengthening of local markets and the improvement of agricultural and food production.
EU4AGRI is a four-year (2020-2024) European Union project worth 20.25 million euros whose goal is to modernize the agricultural and food sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project is implemented and co-financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in BiH and the Czech Development Agency (CzDA).