From a home kitchen to a workshop: Turkistan Region dairy reaches local stores

Aigul Saparova used to make cheese at home and sell it to neighbours. Demand continued to grow, while the capacity of her kitchen did not.

She received a microloan under the Isker programme to purchase a pasteuriser, cheese vats and a cold-storage room. The workshop was set up in a former canteen in her home village.

“I was honestly afraid of taking out a loan. But the branch manager explained everything clearly: one payment a year, after the season when revenue comes in. That is completely different for a rural business,” Aigul says.

Today the dairy processes up to 500 litres of milk a day and purchases raw milk from six neighbouring farms, so one entrepreneur's loan has created income for an entire village.