Industrial symbiosis doesn’t always begin with heavy industry or complex waste exchanges. Sometimes, it starts with people pooling resources and creativity. Kooperativa 103 shows how small producers can achieve circular, resource-efficient growth.

Founded in 2020, Kooperativa 103 is a production and trading cooperative
that unites boutique food producers—including brands like Pokica, Pohorske Dobrote, Kmetija Vizjak, and Rok’s nut butter—under one roof.
Operating in a shared 250 m² production space, the cooperative has already placed over 1.7
million products onto retail shelves in a single year, supplying both local shops and major national
retailers.
The cooperative embodies industrial symbiosis in practice.
By pooling production lines and packaging equipment, its members reduce both costs and environmental impact, while gaining access to professional-grade facilities that would otherwise be out of reach.
At the same time, they apply circular principles by transforming “imperfect” fruits and vegetables into sauces, smoothies, or freeze-dried snacks—an approach that prevents food waste and adds value locally.
Knowledge and expertise are also shared within the cooperative: from product development to navigating food safety regulations, the members support one another, accelerating innovation and reducing duplication of effort.
This spirit of collaboration has enabled them to overcome the barriers of scale, reaching markets faster and more effectively—for example, by successfully launching kombucha powder and other new products nationwide.
For INSET, Kooperativa 103 demonstrates how symbiosis can be social and organizational as well as material. By combining shared facilities with a circular mindset, the cooperative reduces waste,
strengthens local food systems, and creates a resilient model that other regions can learn from.As the INSET project develops its toolkit for industrial symbiosis training and capacity-building,
examples like Kooperativa 103 highlight the importance of collaboration at every level—from large
industrial ecosystems to small but powerful community-driven cooperatives.