Root Capital: Financing Fair Trade Vegetables

Kenya's small-scale farmers have historically been at the mercy of a volatile and unreliable market for their goods. The founders of Tropical Fresh set out to change this by building a stronger bond between producers and buyers. Today, their firm is one of only three companies in the world exporting Fair Trade Certified vegetables. In this video, you will visit Kenyan growers of snap peas and green beans in their fields, and hear how they've benefited from working with Tropical Fresh.

"With Tropical Fresh we can be sure that our produce will not get lost on the way to market, and that we will get a good price," says Elizabeth Kaimenyi, a farmer who grows snap peas and green beans in the shadow of Mt. Kenya. "We have been taught how to manage our crops to get the fair trade premium, and with that money we can plan for the future." For the first time, many members are able to pay for tuition for their children, and the cooperative is planning to build a hospital with a maternity ward --
something that is quite rare in this poor, remote region.

Learn more about Tropical Fresh and other Root Capital clients in Africa and Latin America at http://www.rootcapital.org/where_we_work/

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Africa
• Kenya
• agriculture
• Root Capital
• growing rural prosperity
• social entrepreneur
• Entrepreneur
• social investment fund
• impact investing
• ecomomic development
• sustainable agriculture
• social entrepreneurship
• international development