Only by joining forces and working together can we become stronger and be true stewards of our own land, says Ieva Spriža, owner of the organic farm IK “Dabas gardumi”.
“Dabas gardumi” began with a dream of freedom and a small home-based food business, grew into a sizeable organic farm, and is now joining forces with like-minded partners to build a strong cooperative with a clear vision for the future and thriving rural areas in Latvia.
Freedom in the Countryside
It all started with Ieva’s desire for freedom and independence. The owner of “Dabas gardumi” did not begin her entrepreneurial journey with elaborate business plans, but with very human and personal feelings about what it means to have time for yourself and your family. When her husband Jānis was already farming and the couple were expecting their first child, they decided to move from the inherited dairy and cattle farming business into fruit growing, as land in the area around Riga was increasingly being turned into building plots.
Ieva tried to combine life in the countryside with a salaried job at a ministry, but soon realised that this pace of life was literally suffocating her and that a turning point was inevitable. “I worked as a project finance specialist at the Ministry of the Environment for a year, and it was so exhausting that I simply could not take it anymore. My husband’s friends would come over, they could meet up, celebrate, walk around the countryside, or take their children to the zoo on any day. That is the sense of freedom that having your own farm gives you. Of course, it is hard work looking after and feeding the animals, but I literally could not stand having to drive to work every day and sit at a computer in an office,” she recalls.
This realisation became the driving force behind the change. Ieva looks back on her experience with a smile: “I have only worked in paid employment for two years, while my husband has never worked a single day in a salaried job. But those two years were more than enough for me to realise that I wanted to create something of our own, something close to our hearts, together with my family.”
From a Product Idea to Berry and Fruit Orchards
The journey towards developing their own unique products did not begin with the immediate goal of conquering the market. It started at home, with the desire to provide their children with a healthier diet and find alternatives to sweets. “We started with a small garden around our home, with a few blackcurrant and raspberry bushes, cherries and apple trees, making various products for our own needs,” Ieva recalls.
The major turning point came when her husband suggested experimenting with making products without sugar. The first attempts were successful, the idea was developed further, and innovative products gradually emerged that quickly became popular among friends and acquaintances. Before long, the home kitchen had turned into a genuine home-based production facility. Ieva recalls: “One friend comes over, tastes it and says, ‘Oh, this is really good!’ Then another comes, then a third, and after a while you realise that all you do is talk on the phone, telling everyone how much you have produced and what you have available, because everyone is buying it for themselves and as gifts. Even teachers at the local school start ordering for themselves, their friends and their pupils. Everyone likes the products, and suddenly we had fairly large drying facilities in part of the house, with boxes on the veranda and all over the house.”
As demand grew, a new obstacle emerged. The family wanted to produce organic food, but faced an insurmountable shortage of raw materials. Ieva explains: “From the very beginning, we wanted to be organic producers, but it was not possible because during the winter we could not buy organic raw materials anywhere.” This led to the next, much more ambitious step. “My husband and I realised that we had to plant our own organic orchard. And so, over the years, the land we owned and our small garden around the house were transformed into a 54-hectare organic fruit and berry orchard.”
Science-Based and Modern Farming
Farming on the edge of the Cenas Mire requires much more than sheer enthusiasm, which is why the entire production and cultivation process is based on precise calculations. The real turning point in the business came when it became clear that the volumes of home-based production had to be translated into figures. Ieva recalls: “I thought everything was working – there was income, money was coming in. But my husband said, ‘Listen, take a look and see whether it is actually economically viable! Put it into Excel and look at the numbers.’” This encouraged Ieva to learn about business planning and even involve scientists from the Institute of Horticulture in developing healthy recipes.
The cultivation of the orchard is also a science-based process. Soil analyses are carried out regularly and improvements are made based on the results, including the addition of specific bacteria that break down nutrients and help plants absorb them. Heavy manual labour has been almost completely eliminated, and only crops that can be harvested mechanically are grown. To avoid the need for additional labour during the harvest season, the ripening periods of the plants are carefully planned. For example, 13 different varieties of haskap have been planted according to precise mathematical calculations so that they ripen gradually, allowing the harvest to be collected with a minimum number of workers.
Joining Forces for Joint Action
As the business developed and grew, Ieva realised that even a very strong individual farm has its limits, particularly when production and storage space starts to become insufficient. This led to the idea of the “Vidzemes Bio āboli un ogas” cooperative. Ieva does not hide the fact that Latvians often find it difficult to join forces and trust one another, but in this case, their strength turned out to lie precisely in their differences.
“We grow a wide and very diverse range of crops. After meeting several times, we realised that this is actually our greatest advantage. Perhaps that is precisely the key factor behind our ability to cooperate, because we do not compete with one another,” Ieva explains. While one farm produces dried fruit, another presses apple juice and supplies apples to schools, another grows quinces, and yet another supplies cereals, together creating a strong and diverse offering.
A Vision for Joint Exports and Participation in Public Procurement
Joining forces allows the cooperative to set much more ambitious goals – participating in large-scale public procurement and developing joint export capacity.
“Our goal is not to produce small quantities at a high price, but large quantities at a lower price. The more you produce, the more ways you find to save money by reducing production costs,” Ieva explains.
One of the important areas of public procurement in which local farmers are keen to participate is supplying products for school meals. However, the road to school canteens is paved with the bureaucracy of public procurement. When, for example, a school requires a supplier to provide salt and sugar alongside jam within the same procurement lot, local producers are automatically excluded.
“If the procurement says that a supplier will only be approved if they can supply all the products, farmers cannot participate because we are not wholesale distribution centres,” Ieva says, expressing her frustration with the absurdity of the system. She calls on procurement specialists to change their approach and separate products that can realistically be produced in Latvia, allowing local farmers to fully contribute to providing children with high-quality, locally produced organic food.
It Is Important Not to Divide Ourselves and to Respect One Another
Speaking about the agricultural sector as a whole, Ieva is firm in her belief that the division between organic and conventional farmers, which is often present in society, is harmful and unproductive. She emphasises the importance of respect: “We cannot put our own farm or ourselves on a pedestal by denigrating someone else.”
She calls on Latvians to be more united and to respect the work of their fellow farmers regardless of the farming method they have chosen, because every farmer faces their own challenges. “We organic farmers must not look down on conventional farmers, and vice versa – they must not look down on organic farmers. We each work within our own farming systems; none of them is entirely good and none is entirely bad.” In her view, everyone should start with themselves – taking care of their own surroundings and taking pride in the achievements of their family and farm.
Being Stewards of Our Own Land
Ieva Spriža reminds us that constantly complaining about how difficult life is in Latvia leads nowhere. It is time to stop looking for someone to blame and start taking action. By overcoming doubts and being open to new forms of cooperation, it is possible to build a strong and independent business.
“We need to be confident in what we are doing, learn to reach agreements, put our doubts aside and work together. We can achieve a great deal – develop by attracting European Union support, actively operate at national level and produce organic products. We have the opportunity to grow, produce and process fruit and berry products on a larger scale, be stewards of our own land and take pride in what we do.”
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