From pickles to a successful business: How one woman is reviving entrepreneurship in rural Kosovo

In the village of Pirq, in the municipality of South Mitrovica in Kosovo¹, Fatmire Demiri begins her days at 5 a.m. Her mornings are early, and her days are long, filled with the responsibilities of caring for her children and running a small vegetable processing business she built from the ground up.

At 36, Demiri has become one of many women in rural Kosovo, who through determination and the right support, including from the “Promoting Rural Women Empowerment in Kosovo” project, jointly implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), are changing not only their lives but also their communities.

“I was engaged in processing fruits and vegetables. I lived in the village and didn’t have other job opportunities. I decided to stay close to my children and take care of them, while also working with what the village had to offer,” she says. 

In 2022, she joined a training on vegetable processing to learn how to better preserve food for her family. 

“I initially thought of attending just to learn about cultivation and processing for my family’s needs. But this training also gave me the idea to start a business. In 2023, I decided to formally register it, and here I am now, running it."

A grant from the Initiative for Agricultural Development in Kosovo helped her buy basic equipment and officially register her business. She invested further in her small workshop and also received a subsidy from the Municipality of South Mitrovica.

Fatmire Demiri processes a wide range of fruits and vegetables, everything from pumpkin and apricots to cucumbers and tomatoes. She grows some of the produce herself in a small greenhouse and buys the rest from other women in her village. This local exchange has become a source of mutual support among women farmers in her community. “We help each other,” Demiri says.

The early days of running the business were not easy. In addition to the demands of setting up production and finding customers, Demiri was also managing health issues and lacked the financial resources many businesses need at the outset. Still, she continued, supported by her family and motivated by the belief that she could make it work. “Without the help of my family, it would have been impossible to continue,” she says.

Her greatest support comes from her 60-year-old mother, Sevdije Jashari, who emphasizes how solidarity among women and the right support can strengthen their path to success. 

“I help my daughter because I believe that if we want to achieve something and empower ourselves as women, we need to support one another. Every weekend, I go to her workshop and help clean the raw products and prepare them for pickling,” says Demiri’s mother. 

Various fairs organized across Kosovo have also supported the growth of her business, allowing her and other women engaged in similar activities to showcase their products, build networks with suppliers, and reach new clients.

Her involvement with UN Women began through the “Promoting Rural Women Empowerment in Kosovo” project, implemented jointly with FAO and funded by ADA, after being informed by the Mitrovica municipal office. Through the initiative, she attended additional trainings focused on business development and financial literacy. For Demiri, these were essential. “The training on finance and business helped me better manage both my business income and our household budget. I learned things I had never had access to before,” Demiri argues.

Today, her small business has a growing and loyal customer base, and she is gradually building a more stable income for her family.

Each evening, Fatmire Demiri reflects on the day’s work with satisfaction. “When I see what I’ve produced with my own hands, I feel proud,” she says. Her story is one of quiet persistence, local knowledge, and the kind of empowerment that grows from the ground up.

The project “Promoting Rural Women Empowerment in Kosovo” is being implemented from the beginning of 2024 to the end of 2026, and seeks to expand opportunities for women like Fatmire Demiri by addressing the structural barriers that rural women face. This project will award rural women from three targeted municipalities with support to purchase new equipment, enabling them to expand their production capacity, improve product quality, and strengthen their economic independence.

Through skills training, entrepreneurship support, and partnerships with local institutions, the initiative is helping close gender gaps in rural development and ensuring that women have a stronger voice and role in their communities.

¹ References to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).