A look at the challenges and decisions that agricultural entrepreneurs experience over the course of a year. PART I: HARVEST
Read moreTopics: Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact |
This year, the world will consume more coffee than ever before. And industry projections point to growing demand in the years ahead, especially in emerging markets. Take China, for example. During its annual investor meeting last month, Starbucks highlighted that it’s opening the equivalent of one new store in China every day. The problem, however, is that this rising global demand for coffee cannot be met with a dwindling supply.
Read moreTopics: Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | News and Announcements | Partnerships | South America |
Kenia Ubeda, general manager of UCCEI, a Root Capital client in Matagalpa, Nicaragua Kenia Ubeda never thought she’d be running a coffee business. “I was an agronomist and a coffee farmer,” she says with a smile on her face. “I didn’t know the first thing about commercializing coffee.” But the community leaders who tapped Kenia to found and run UCCEI, a farmer cooperative in the coffee-fueled town of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, knew she had what it took. And in 2009, Kenia rose to the challenge and became UCCEI’s general manager, overseeing a business currently sourcing from over 900 smallholder farmers in the region.
Read moreTopics: Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact | Women in Agriculture |
En las tierras altas de Marcala, en Honduras, donde las calles no tienen nombre, para poder ir desde la iglesia - el punto principal de referencia que se utiliza en el pueblo– hasta la Cooperativa RAOS (la primera cooperativa de café 100% orgánica del país), es necesario contar con una de estas tres cosas: un mapa muy detallado, una guía local o una buena dosis de suerte.
Read moreTopics: Advisory Services | En Español | Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact |
Root Capital CEO Willy Foote visting Cooperativa RAOS in 2013. In the sleepy, highland town of Marcala, Honduras, there are no street names. To get from Marcala’s church – the town’s main point of reference – to Cooperativa RAOS, the country’s first 100 percent organic coffee cooperative just outside of town, you’d better have one of three things: a detailed map, a local guide, or a healthy dose of luck.
Read moreTopics: Advisory Services | Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact |
Serendipalm employees in Asuom, Ghana. Photo credit: Dr. Bronner's. One hundred miles northwest of Accra, Ghana, sits Asuom, a village of surprising and beautiful contrasts and contradictions. The vermilion clay earth and rust-tin roofs in Asuom pop in contrast to the verdant greens of forests nearby. But it’s within these forests that an even more unexpected paradox exists: large, splayed trees producing sustainable palm oil. Four thousand acres of trees are cultivated by the 670 farmer members of Root Capital client Serendipalm – the world’s first, and largest, fair trade and organic certified palm oil company.
Read moreTopics: Environment | Livelihoods | Stories of Impact | West Africa | Women in Agriculture |
Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa (Pangoa), a Fair Trade and organic-certified coffee cooperative located in San Martin de Pangoa, Peru, has been a Root Capital client for nearly a decade. Pangoa is a shining example of the power of the cooperative in local communities, and it’s unique in many ways – first and foremost, because it’s led by a woman. For the latest post in our 15 Voices blog series, we’re excited to share a recent interview with Esperanza Dionisio Castillo, Pangoa’s general manager, a true visionary who has been recognized internationally for her effective managerial skills and impressive commitment to Pangoa’s members and the broader community.
Read moreTopics: Environment | Livelihoods | Our Community | Stories of Impact | Women in Agriculture |
If you bought a cup of certified coffee recently, chances are high it might have been brewed using "shade-grown" beans. But what is shade-grown coffee exactly, and why is it important?
Read moreTopics: Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | South America |
In addition to providing us with new insights about the lives of smallholder farmers affiliated with four of our coffee clients, the data from Improving Rural Livelihoods helped us to refine our impact framework — a model that Root Capital uses to map how services provided by clients can lead to improvements in rural incomes for producer households.
Read moreTopics: Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America |
The mutually beneficial relationship between agricultural business, smallholder, and natural environment. Note: In February, Root Capital published our inaugural Issue Brief on the emerging business case for financial institutions to conduct due diligence on the social and environmental practices of their borrowers and investees. This is the second in a series that goes deeper on that social and environmental due diligence, addressing questions such as: What do we look for in the business we lend to, and why? How do we go about it? And how do smallholder producers and agricultural businesses in Africa and Latin America benefit, as well as upstream exporters, processors, retailers, and consumers worldwide?
Read moreTopics: Advisory Services | Livelihoods |