QOOT Cluster has for mission to help Lebanese agri-food innovators thrive by creating the ideal environment for agri-food businesses to strengthen their expertise, fuel their ideas, establish themselves in new markets, and build fruitful partnerships.
A successful example of the above is the case of Lama Foods and Grapeful, both QOOT Cluster members, collaborating together to valorize their uncommercialized products.
Lama Foods has always been investing in vineyards, exporting and selling big sizes and commercialized table grapes, discarding all small-sized, non-internationally standardized grapes. They decided to shift their strategy in valorizing their uncommercialized produce, and started to collect non-industrial grapes (usually not harvested), to offer them to companies, such as Grapeful, that can valorize these by-products and manufacture grape-based goods.
Grapeful, being one of the companies that uses grapes as its main product in its delicious, natural grape molasses and protein bar, has profited from these uncommercialized grapes and has managed to create a value from products that were usually wasted, allowing them to increase their production in a profitable way.
During harvest season, Lama foods managed to collect 4 to 5 tons of uncommercialized grapes, aiming to collect 10 tons next year.
This collaboration between the two QOOT Cluster members created a win-win deal in times of crisis, where by-products are being valorized and used as added value.
