Electricity Quadruples Sales for Local Flour Mill
Ilyas Jafarov, owner of the only flour mill in the Jafarhanli village of Jalilabad, Azerbaijan, has provided three primary services to surrounding farmers for nearly a decade: flour milling, wheat and barley seed cleaning, and mixed feed production. However, unreliable electric lines and his outdated generator could not keep up with his energetic spirit and the demands of his customers. The clients of the mill and farmers from 14 surrounding villages were forced to wait in lines, shoulder the brunt of the expensive yet inconsistent electricity, or travel long distances to another more reliable mill, stunting economic opportunities for the rural business people. Yet a steady power supply seemed to be within reach: Jalilabad city’s electrical line ended just two kilometers from the facility.
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Azerbaijani engineers mounted 30 concrete blocks to extend the electrical line more than 2 kilometers
Photo Credit: IRC/ABAD |
USAID’s Azerbaijan Business Assistance Development (ABAD) program sponsored half the cost of extending the power line the necessary distance to the mill; Jafarov was able to cover the rest of the cost. This enabled the mill to provide reliable and cheap services to the surrounding farmers, increasing the overall production capacity of the business.
With these improvements, the mill has already re-gained previous customers and nearly doubled the number of total clientele to 1,314 farmers from surrounding communities by eliminating their need to travel for services. To meet demand, the mill added another shift with eight new permanent employees. Consistent operations with negligible interruptions or breaks in electricity have resulted in higher quality refined flour. During the first six months with the new power line, the mill has milled 1,300 tons of flour, mixed 575 tons of fodder and sifted 1,025 tons of seeds: more than five times its previous capacity. Since electrical power is cheaper than the petrol required for the generator, the farmer maintained his prices at the same level, and still managed to quadruple his sales volume within the first eight months after installation of the new line.
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