Be Kind & Make a Difference
Community
True socio-economic upliftment cannot occur without sustainability. For this reason, SEED has considered the growth potential of both industry and skill for the communities that live side by side with wild and natural growing indigenous organic resources. Like a seed that holds within it the potential for future harvests, so the development of skills within Namibia’s rural communities provides both immediate financial benefit that relieves seasonal poverty and long-term employment potential for community members.
The opportunities that are unlocked by the collecting and production of the Marula and other indigenous fruits include community owned warehouses, nurseries, logistic support and mobile processing plants. To ensure the sustainable commercialisation of the fruit, processing plants will be introduced in phases to enable the rural communities to scale into fully operational facilities over time. This phased-in process will additionally create a platform for community collectors to create value added processes for their raw materials. By doing this, they attain the maximum value for their product before selling.
Community value chain at a glance SEED’s partnership with the local communities will enable them to sustainably grow and build a value chain that converts their produce into high quality market ready products.
- The Marula and indigenous fruits ripen and falls sporadically over a period of time within the rural communal areas. The community collectors are identified and trained to collect these indigenous fruits and fruit stones. After collection and storage of the raw material collected, the collectors proceeds to wash and clean the fruit and stones before delivering the raw material product to the designated communal warehouses.
- At the designated communal warehouses, the community collectors are organised and the collected bags are inspected, weighed and each collector is paid per weight for the produce collected based on fair trade principles. The stones and nuts are packaged and loaded for delivery to the agro-processing wholesale division.
- Mobile fruit and vegetable pulpers and pasteurizers are deployed to rural communal areas and central collection points whereby the community can pulp and pasteurize the indigenous fruits at no charge. This enables the community to efficiently produce sterilized fruit and vegetable pulp that is used in various traditional recipes for food and beverages.
- Tourists are encouraged to visit the area to view the value chain process and participate in producing their own fruit pulp and cosmetic oils.
How do the rural communities benefit?
- For every person that benefits, approximately another 7 individual are positively impacted.
- One harvester is involved for every ton of fruit collected.
- Production facilities and value chains can employ up to 6000 unskilled, skilled and semi-skilled community members.
- Skills transfer and development. Skills development and accredited training programmes are offered across the value chain. Training includes skills development in various fields, including, sourcing, collecting and sustainable harvesting, managerial, compliance, leadership, operational, human resources, health and safety, and administration.
- Creation of community co-operatives and structured business centres within the rural community centres.
- Industry development with shareholder and directorship opportunities.
- Creation of SMME’s around the Value Chain, such as soap making, jam and chutney production facilities and nuts for the tourist and retail markets.
How does the local and international market benefit? There is an increased demand for natural, fair trade, organic Indigenous and naturalproducts worldwide. SEED’s partnership supports the process of delivering high quality product by ensuring the following:
- A constant supply of quality natural and indigenous products
- Improved product development
- Increased consumer access to natural and indigenous products
