Farming

Cultivation Program

Relikaj brand has a passionate commitment to quality and authenticity in raw material. We do understand the challenge of sourcing traceable and high quality herbs as most of the companies in the food business buy ingredients from different sources and suppliers, making difficult to trace issues and to increase consistency in quality and processing.

Relikaj on the other hand has a strong connection to farming and we cultivate some of the herbs in our own lands, increasing tremendously product traceability and raw material harvesting quality. We are located in North of Albania, part of Dalmation region, the best to cultivate and harvest culinary plants, especially Sage, Savory, Lavander, Thyme and Oregano.

Benefits of having our own farming in sage

Relikaj is investing in creating a sustainable and a high quality raw material by cultivating Sage, Savory and Thyme in its owned fields.

Harvesting very high quality of raw material, obtaining near to 0 % of foreign material
Creating a 100 % traceability system
Becoming a good example for other farmers of how an excellent field should be maintained

Sustainable Sourcing & Food Safety

In September 2017 we have been Rainforest Alliance Certified, where certified farms operate an environmental and social management system according to the complexity of its operation and in compliance with applicable local legislation. In our certification we have around 120 sustainable farms with an annual production of 1,000 MT of certified sage.

To trace the product in a way to ensure traceability and safety, the farmers use new bags distributed by Relikaj, where attached is a batch having a specific farmer code. This code is maintained during harvesting, handling, processing, packaging and transportation. By this way we ensure full traceability and quality sustainability of the product.

Traceability

Each farmer in the database has a particular code, based on his name, famer village and the number of farms.
We distribute bags to farmers before harvesting where each bag has its own code
After harvesting the farmers put the sage into the bags we have distributed where each bag has its own code.
We take samples and analyse the product before is supplied
After the raw material guarantees Relikaj’s specs then the farmer brings the sage into the warehouse

Analysis

Again, after storage of the certified product, all the bags keep their own code
Processing, which starts with cutting, cleaning and packaging is done properly so all the product is traced in new bags with the same code it had in the farm level
After this process we analyse the product and take note of all the results
Packing process, after packing we separate the product in different parties, and analyse the final product
Separation in parties of the certified product and record the data

Digitalization of Farming

We have revolutionized the Agri-Ecosystem in Albania by implementing modern agriculture technologies. We buy raw material directly from farmers only in our area, in North of Albania the best one to thrive and harvest sage. To add value to farming, we have successfully uploaded the entire crop monitoring operations on Cropin Software and integrated a mobile platform.

All farmers we work with have the platform on their mobile phones, where they load specific data on the crop management, the GPS coordinates of the farming, the farm size, the thriving period, the audit period, the harvesting procedure and all other maintains steps they have done through year around are written and recorded on the online platform. The implementation of this digital management system in all sage farming will increase farmers’ long-term productivity, will obtain real-time information on yield forecasts and will ensure product traceability.