Uplifting West African communities, one cashew at a time

Ever before question just how your favored treat was sourced? Joshua Reed-Diawuoh assumes even more individuals should.

Reed-Diawuoh MBA ’20 is the owner and chief executive officer of GRIA Food Firm, which companions with business that fairly resource and procedure food in West Africa to sustain neighborhood food economic climates and aid neighborhoods in the area a lot more generally.

” It’s really tough for these agricultures and manufacturers to begin lasting companies and accumulate that worth chain in the location,” claims Reed-Diawuoh, that began the firm as a pupil in the MIT Sloan Institution of Administration. “We wish to sustain these business that place in the job to develop incorporated companies that are using individuals and boosting neighborhoods.”

GRIA, which represents “Expanded in Africa,” is presently offering 6 kinds of flavorful cashews sourced from Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso. Every one of the cashews are accredited by Fairtrade International, which implies along with providing lasting earnings, accessibility to funding, and suitable working problems, the business get a “Fairtrade Costs” in addition to the market price that permits them to buy the long-lasting wellness of their neighborhoods.

” That costs is transformational,” Reed-Diawuoh claims. “The costs mosts likely to the manufacturer cooperatives, or the farmers functioning the land, and they can spend that whatsoever they pick. They can place it back right into their organization, they can begin brand-new neighborhood advancement tasks, like developing institutions or boosting wastewater framework, whatever they desire.”

Breaking the nut

Reed-Diawuoh’s household is from Ghana, and prior to involving MIT Sloan, he functioned to sustain farming and food production for nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, with specific concentrate on boosting small farmers. That’s where he discovered troubles with funding and framework restrictions that held lots of business back.

” I intended to obtain my hands filthy and begin my very own organization that added to boosting farming advancement in West Africa,” Reed-Diawuoh claims.

He went into MIT Sloan in 2018, taking entrepreneurship courses and discovering numerous organization concepts prior to making a decision to fairly resource generate from farmers and offer straight to customers. He claims MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Company Laboratory supplied especially useful lessons for just how to structure his organization.

In his 2nd year, Reed-Diawuoh was chosen for a fellowship at the Legatum Facility, which attached him to various other business owners operating in arising markets worldwide.

” Legatum was an essential landmark for me,” he claims. “It gave me with some framework and area to establish this concept. It likewise provided me an amazing possibility to take threats and discover various organization principles in a manner I could not have actually done if I was operating in sector.”

Business version Reed-Diawuoh picked for GRIA resources item from agriculture companions in West Africa that follow the most strict ecological and labor requirements. Reed-Diawuoh determined to begin with cashews due to the fact that they have lots of hands-on handling actions– from shelling to peeling off and toasting– that are frequently done after the cashews are shipped of West Africa, restricting the development of neighborhood food economic climates and taking riches out of neighborhoods.

Each of GRIA’s companions, from the business collecting cashews to the handling centers, functions straight with farmer cooperatives and small farmers and is accredited by Fairtrade International.

” Without appropriate oversight and laws, employees usually obtain manipulated, and youngster labor is a substantial trouble throughout the farming industry,” Reed-Diawuoh claims. “Fairtrade accreditations attempt and take a durable and strenuous method to bookkeeping every one of business and their supply chains, from manufacturers to farmers to cpus. They do on-site check outs and they examine economic records. We underwent this throughout a comprehensive three-month evaluation.”

After importing cashew bits, GRIA tastes and plans them at a manufacturing center in Boston. Reed-Diawuoh began by offering to little independent sellers in Greater Boston prior to scaling up GRIA’s on the internet sales. He began increase manufacturing initially of 2023.

” Whenever we offer our item, if individuals weren’t currently accustomed to Fairtrade or moral sourcing, we supply details on our product packaging and all of our security,” Reed-Diawuoh claims. “We wish to spread this message regarding the relevance of moral sourcing and the relevance of accumulating food production in West Africa specifically, yet likewise in increasing economic climates throughout the globe.”

Making moral sourcing mainstream

GRIA presently imports regarding a lots of Fairtrade cashews and bits each quarter, and Reed-Diawuoh wishes to increase that number every year for the near future.

” For every extra pound, we pay costs for the bits, which sustains this ecological community where manufacturers obtain made up relatively for their deal with the land, and agricultures have the ability to develop even more durable and successful organization designs, due to the fact that they have an end market for these Fairtrade-certified items.”

Reed-Diawuoh is presently trying various product packaging and tastes and remains in conversations with companions to broaden manufacturing capability and relocate right into Ghana. He’s likewise discovering business partnerships and has actually offered MIT with item over the previous 2 years for seminars and various other occasions.

” We’re explore various development methods,” Reed-Diawuoh claims. “We’re significantly still in start-up setting, yet actually attempting to increase our sales and manufacturing.”

As GRIA ranges, Reed-Diawuoh wishes it presses customers to begin asking even more of their favored food brand names.

” It’s definitely essential that, if we’re sourcing fruit and vegetables in markets like the united state from locations like West Africa, we’re hyper-focused on doing it in a moral way,” Reed-Diawuoh claims. “The total objective of GRIA is to guarantee we are sticking to and advertising rigorous sourcing requirements and being strenuous and thoughtful regarding the method we import item.”