The Green Cluster supports small Cypriot producers during the COVID-19 lockdown

Submitted by Tedora Aibu on 18 June 2020

The Green Cluster is an initiative developed by AKTI Project and Research Centre, with the objective of building a community of small business andproducers. Its major task is to achieve gender equality and women empowerment, fostering cooperation across different economic sectors and implement an inclusive growth concept. The cluster has more than 300 members and has emerged from the inherent need for continuous business innovation, and the acknowledgement that transformative cooperation is essential in the evolution of small businesses. The Green Cluster brings together enterprises from fourteen different economic sectors to and targets SMEs with less than 10 emplyees. During the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Green Cluster took quick actions to protect and support its members such as small farm owners by collecting testimonials from members, and capitalising on the cluster infrastructure responded swiftly and well ahead of governmental bodies in raising the alarm for 'excluded/ isolated' small producers due to the lockdown measures of the pandemic. The Green Cluster was correctly positioned and with the right structures to respond. If structures like this do not exist, then there is no time for planning the response when a crisis emerges and thus, no time for needs identification, developing support tools and lobbying. Based on these experiences, the Green Cluster has published a response practice guide. 

The full guide can be found below. 

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