Our impact

To improve opportunities for all Calabrians
GOEL needs to expand its reach and impact.

The GOEL community co-operative movement is registered in Italy as a non-profit social enterprise. It includes 11 social co-operatives, one ordinary co-operative, two voluntary service organisations and 28 companies, most of them farms. GOEL employs about 200 people directly, excluding external or temporary workers and consultants. Co-operative members now control more than 350 hectares of Calabrian farmland, more than half of that citrus and olive groves.

The value of aggregate production across the whole GOEL Group was around €7 million in 2017. Development plans are now being drawn up to transform GOEL into a €70 million a year organisation over the next decade with up to 2000 permanent employees.

Why we need to scale up

Within the next year, GOEL VILLAGE will be the new headquarters for all the Group’s activities. Based in Siderno on the Ionian coast of Calabria, the high street HQ will include shops and cafes and is designed to strengthen the public perception of GOEL as an everyday working alternative to the mafia-dominated economy.

Over the past 15 years, GOEL has demonstrated that it can provide a safe and legitimate alternative to the mafia. It has also succeeded in gaining the trust and often the active support of the local community.

But to improve the rights and opportunities of all Calabrians and to permanently delegitimise ‘ndrangheta GOEL needs to expand its reach and impact.

The Group plans to become self-sustaining through growth in international sales. But in the early transition years, GOEL is seeking funding from social impact investors willing to support its campaign to protect human rights for all Calabrians and move the region closer to security and democratic legitimacy.