Posted by Lula Perez  |  January 28, 2020

"What coffee variety do you think has the lowest quality?” Intelligentsia Coffee’s Director of Sourcing and Shared Value Michael Sheridan asked this question to a room of farmers and business leaders in Honduras last month. “Lempira!” came the unanimous reply. Michael asked a follow-up question: “What is the variety you have planted most on your farms?” Again, the room called out in unison, “Lempira!”

Topics: Advisory Services | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Kate Hyder  |  December 10, 2019

La versión original de este blog apareció en inglés en el sitio web del Pace Able Foundation. La cooperativa cafetalera CECAFE se encuentra en Lonya Grande, el cual es un pueblo ubicado en la región montañosa de la región Amazonas, Perú, a un par de horas en carro de la ciudad principal más cercana. Los socios de la cooperativa viven aún más afuera, por caminos  serpenteantes próximos al Parque Nacional Cutervo.

Topics: Advisory Services | Digital Business Intelligence | En Español | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | South America | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Kate Hyder  |  November 5, 2019

This post originally appeared on the website of the Pace Able Foundation. The town of Lonya Grande sits in the mountainous region of Amazonas, Peru. It is here, hours by car from the nearest major city, that the coffee cooperative CECAFE has its headquarters. Members of the cooperative live even farther afield, down winding roads in the shadows of the Cutervo National Park.

Topics: Advisory Services | Digital Business Intelligence | Livelihoods | Partnerships | South America | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Lula Perez  |  September 26, 2019

Wiston Vílchez had barely turned 24 when he took over as general manager of the fledgling Flor de Dalia coffee cooperative in 2014. At the time, the cooperative consisted of a handful of families who sold their coffee to local brokers at rock-bottom prices. The brokers then sold the coffee on the international market with a huge mark-up—pocketing all the profit for themselves. 

Topics: Advisory Services | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  June 11, 2019

Eighty kilometers outside of Nairobi, the Patel family’s macadamia factory buzzes with activity. In 2016, Mehul and Chirag Patel founded macadamia processing business Rainsun Nuts; every year since, they’ve doubled their sales. Between their office in Nairobi and their factory in the rural town of Sagana, they’ve created jobs for dozens of people—the majority of whom are women, and many of whom are under 35.

Topics: Advisory Services | East Africa | Partnerships | Youth |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  July 11, 2018

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab. Each year, more than 10 million young people across Africa enter the job market, competing for just three million formal jobs. As the continent’s youth population swells steadily towards a projected total of 800 million by 2050, this demographic crisis will intensify even further.

Topics: Advisory Services | Partnerships | West Africa | Youth |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  May 16, 2018

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling to the coffeelands of northern Nicaragua to see Root Capital’s advisory team in action.

Topics: Advisory Services | Mexico and Central America | Youth |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  September 13, 2017

Last year, we asked young leaders in rural Ghana what it takes to be an effective agricultural business leader in their communities. Our next step was to translate what we learned into prototypes designed to strengthen the agricultural leaders of today and tomorrow.

Topics: Advisory Services | West Africa | Youth |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  May 11, 2017

Members of APROCASSI, a coffee cooperative in Peru, line up to apply for credit from the cooperative's internal credit fund. When asked about the effect that a rural business’ internal credit fund has on farmers, Root Capital advisor Fany Murillo answers with a single word: “epic.”

Topics: Advisory Services | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America |

Posted by Kate Hyder  |  April 20, 2017

Other than the fact that dresses and headscarves made of brightly patterned kente cloth dotted the room, the scene could have been from a young professionals’ networking event in San Francisco or Boston: 11 millennials, gathered into small focus groups in a hotel conference room, discussing what leadership meant to them.

Topics: Advisory Services | West Africa |