This project is working to develop and bring two new African gourmet coffees to the UK. The project, led by Sainsburys involves a consortium with TWIN trading, Finlays, and two farmers’ cooperatives: Sopacdi in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Mzuzu in Malawi. The project will use the growth trends in UK consumer demand for differentiated, high quality coffees, to link production by identified organisations of smallholder farmers to this high value market.
Leading tea supplier Finlay Beverages, is working with Fairtrade supermarket The Co-operative, the Kenya Cooperative College and Africa Now to deliver the benefits of both Fairtrade and the co-operative business model to secure long-term sustainable livelihoods for small-scale tea farmers in Kericho, South-West Kenya. At present around 8,000 smallholders spread around Finlay’s own Estate supply the Company with tea leaf. This is organised by Finlays through a network of buying centres. Finlays offer additional services to farmers particularly the sale of fertiliser at cost price. The company recognises the excellent quality of the tea it gets from these growers.
Cafédirect, the UK’s largest Fairtrade hot drinks company, will launch two new products, a single origin cocoa drink from São Tomé and Principe and a single origin orthodox green tea from Rwanda with the help of FRICH funding. The project will increase the volume and value of trade in green tea and cocoa from Africa into the UK supporting up to 8,000 smallholder farmers boost their businesses and raise their incomes. Working with UK-based Fairorganics Solution, local partners – Imani Development and Zatona Adil– Cafédirect will help more processing & quality improvement activities to take place in Africa so more of the profits remain in the hands of the producers, while also reducing their exposure to volatile commodity prices.
Blue Skies is an award winning fresh-cut fruit company with factories in Ghana, Egypt, South Africa and Brazil. The company sells prepared fruit products to retailers throughout Europe and is passionate about creating opportunities for sustainable development by adding value to raw materials within the country of origin. Their factory in Ghana employs 1,500 people and is responsible for 5% of Ghanaian non-traditional exports. The site has a clinic, library, internet café and subsidised canteen and the business contributes £2.5 million in to the local economy through salaries. In 2008 the company received a Queens Award for Enterprise for its contribution to Sustainable Development.
Fullwell Mill is a leading UK Fairtrade food manufacturer that produces food products under licence for major UK brands and supermarket chains and manufactures and sells products under its own “Tropical Wholefoods” brand. The Company has an established and successful association with Fruits of the Nile in Uganda, bringing a range of dried fruit products to the UK produced by well organised small scale farmers. This project is testing and developing the production of dried berry fruits in Uganda, which represent a great opportunity for new, high value products with a significant market demand.
Waitrose is fostering the growth of sustainable agricultural practices across Africa by helping growers to adapt their cultivation and production processes to meet the environmental requirements of the LEAF Marque standard. Waitrose, which has for the past three years used the LEAF Marque guarantee for UK fresh grown produce, has announced a commitment to help ALL its suppliers operate in a productive and environmentally responsible way. The project – a partnership between Waitrose and Green Shoots, LEAF, British & Brazilian, Blue Skies, Sunripe and Wealmoor – is well underway with a range of activities.
This project is about developing a sustainable supply of premium tea. This is being achieved through the introduction of a business model that guarantees quality and sustains it by sharing higher returns equitably amongst the tea producers, the factory operators and Bettys and Taylors (B&T). The project works as a partnership between B&T, OCIR Thé (The Rwandan national tea authority), the factory owners, the Rainforest Alliance and the farmers who supply the factories.
This project, implemented by New England Seafood, Lake Harvest Aquaculture in Zimbabwe and Waitrose aims to help springboard tilapia into the UK market and the sales evidence (only 2% of UK households buying tilapia at present) points to this being the right moment in time for it. Tilapia will through the project reach a wider consumer base and be a more presentable product, which will support its growth in the UK market. The growth will open opportunities for other African tilapia farmers to enter the field and to access higher value markets.
This project is helping the Ethiopian Horticulture Produce & Exporters Association (EHPEA) access the UK fresh flower market through the development of its own standards that, through benchmarking against International standards become acceptable to the UK retail sector. EHPEA has developed a code of practice to drive environmental and good agricultural best practise for the industry.
This project is supporting a small tea cooperative in Kenya – Iriaini - to blend and create their own tea bags to sell to the UK market and to the internal African market.
Ndali (UK) and Ndali Estate Uganda are working together to develop a range of high quality Ugandan sourced vanilla products. The project is supporting a process of upgrading and redeveloping several aspects of the Ndali business to generate growth.
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