Grants to women's cooperatives approach 25 million liras

Within the scope of the Cooperatives Support Program (KOOP-DES), the Ministry of Trade provided grant support of 24 million 775 thousand 370 liras to 117 projects of 109 cooperatives from 51 provinces, the majority of which are women and aim to utilize women's labor.

While the Ministry of Commerce is taking steps to support women's cooperatives, some projects aimed at women exporters are also being implemented.

In this context, KOOP-DES is carried out in order to support investment projects of cooperatives and their parent organizations that will contribute to production and employment, to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in their activities, to contribute to their use of technology and new production techniques, and to bring individual savings into the economy with appropriate cooperative entrepreneurship models.

As a result of the evaluations, within the framework of KOOP-DES in 2024, 24 million 775 thousand 370 liras of grant support was given to 117 projects of 109 cooperatives from 51 provinces, the majority of whose partners are women and aim to utilize women's labor.

2025 IS THE YEAR OF SUPPORT FOR COOPERATIVES

The Ministry primarily supports cooperatives whose members are mostly women and whose aim is to utilize women's labor, cooperatives whose members are mostly young people and disadvantaged individuals, cooperatives engaged in production and marketing activities, and cooperatives operating in the fields of agricultural sales, arts and innovation.

While the United Nations declared 2025 as the “International Year of Cooperatives,” significant increases were made in support limits. The upper limit of support for cooperatives’ machinery or equipment purchases and for investment goods that are considered fixed assets for elderly and disabled care centers, children’s clubs, crèches, and daycare centers operated by cooperatives whose members are at least 90 percent women was increased from 400 thousand Turkish Lira to 1 million Turkish Lira. The upper limit of support for cooperatives’ participation in exhibitions and fairs for the promotion and marketing of their products was increased from 60 thousand Turkish Lira to 150 thousand Turkish Lira, and the qualified personnel employment support for cooperatives’ machinery or equipment and fixed asset purchase projects to be granted grant support was increased from 204 thousand Turkish Lira to 266 thousand 400 Turkish Lira per year for one personnel, and from 408 thousand Turkish Lira to 532 thousand 800 Turkish Lira per year for two personnel.

In addition, the Ministry of Commerce has also allowed support to be provided up to 100 percent of the limits in question.

TRAININGS WERE GIVEN TO WOMEN IN COOPERATIVES

On the other hand, the Ministry also organizes trainings for women's cooperatives. These programs are organized online and face-to-face in line with the demands from district governorships, municipalities, chambers of commerce, civil society organizations, universities and women entrepreneurs. The training and information activities in question were carried out online in 2023. 150 women's cooperative members from the provinces of Ordu, Giresun, Amasya, Tokat, Erzincan, Tunceli, Bingöl, Van, Erzurum, Ağrı, Muş, Elazığ, Sivas, Malatya, Kayseri, Nevşehir, Kırıkkale, Yozgat, Çorum and Samsun received e-commerce/e-export training, and 934 women's cooperative members received articles of association and adaptation training. Last year, e-commerce/e-export training was organized for 120 women's cooperative members from the provinces of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Rize, Trabzon, Giresun, Antalya and Mersin, and in the first 6 months of this year, e-commerce/e-export training was organized for 140 women's cooperative members from the provinces of İzmir, Manisa, Karabük, Bartın, Zonguldak, İstanbul and Tekirdağ.

Within the scope of face-to-face training, in 2023, 750 people, including women's cooperative members, entrepreneurs, independent accountants and financial advisors, and university students, were given training on legislation and information systems (KOOP-BIS-ESBİS), cooperatives, export and commercial ethics in the provinces of Istanbul, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Eskişehir, Kütahya, Konya, Gaziantep, Sivas, Kırşehir, Bursa, Mersin, Konya and Kafkas University.

Last year, trainings were organized on the Ministry’s representation, legislation, adaptation, information systems (KOOP-BIS-ESBIS), export supports, e-commerce, e-export, women’s cooperatives and commercial ethics to 2,260 people including women’s cooperative members, entrepreneurs, freelance accountants and financial advisors, university students and provincial directorate of commerce personnel in the provinces of Ankara, Çorum, Konya, Zonguldak, Kayseri, Samsun, Giresun, Trabzon, Kütahya, Bursa, Diyarbakır and Yozgat, as well as at Ostim Teknik, Gazi, TOBB and Hacı Bayram Veli universities and the Ankara Provincial Directorate of Commerce.

In the first 6 months of this year, a total of 522 people, including tradesmen, artisans, cooperative members, and independent accountants and financial advisors, were given training on legislation, e-commerce, e-export, marketing and information systems (KOOP-BIS, ESBIS) in the provinces of Eskişehir, Bursa and Yalova.