Ever marvel how your favourite snack was sourced? Joshua Reed-Diawuoh thinks extra individuals ought to.
Reed-Diawuoh MBA ’20 is the founder and CEO of GRIA Meals Firm, which companions with firms that ethically supply and course of meals in West Africa to help native meals economies and assist communities within the area extra broadly.
“It’s very tough for these agribusinesses and producers to begin sustainable companies and construct up that worth chain within the space,” says Reed-Diawuoh, who began the corporate as a scholar within the MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration. “We need to help these firms that put within the work to construct built-in companies which might be using individuals and uplifting communities.”
GRIA, which stands for “Grown in Africa,” is at the moment promoting six kinds of flavored cashews sourced from Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso. All the cashews are licensed by Fairtrade Worldwide, which implies along with providing sustainable wages, entry to financing, and first rate working circumstances, the businesses obtain a “Fairtrade Premium” on high of the promoting value that permits them to spend money on the long-term well being of their communities.
“That premium is transformational,” Reed-Diawuoh says. “The premium goes to the producer cooperatives, or the farmers working the land, they usually can make investments that in any manner they select. They will put it again into their enterprise, they’ll begin new group growth tasks, like constructing colleges or bettering wastewater infrastructure, no matter they need.”
Cracking the nut
Reed-Diawuoh’s household is from Ghana, and earlier than coming to MIT Sloan, he labored to help agriculture and meals manufacturing for nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, with explicit give attention to uplifting small-scale farmers. That’s the place he realized about difficulties with financing and infrastructure constraints that held many firms again.
“I needed to get my arms soiled and begin my very own enterprise that contributed to bettering agricultural growth in West Africa,” Reed-Diawuoh says.
He entered MIT Sloan in 2018, taking entrepreneurship lessons and exploring a number of enterprise concepts earlier than deciding to ethically supply produce from farmers and promote on to customers. He says MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Enterprise Lab supplied significantly priceless classes for tips on how to construction his enterprise.
In his second 12 months, Reed-Diawuoh was chosen for a fellowship on the Legatum Heart, which related him to different entrepreneurs working in rising markets around the globe.
“Legatum was a pivotal milestone for me,” he says. “It supplied me with some construction and area to develop this concept. It additionally gave me an unbelievable alternative to take dangers and discover totally different enterprise ideas in a manner I couldn’t have finished if I used to be working in trade.”
The enterprise mannequin Reed-Diawuoh settled on for GRIA sources product from agribusiness companions in West Africa that adhere to the strictest environmental and labor requirements. Reed-Diawuoh determined to begin with cashews as a result of they’ve many handbook processing steps — from shelling to peeling and roasting — which might be usually finished after the cashews are shipped out of West Africa, limiting the expansion of native meals economies and taking wealth out of communities.
Every of GRIA’s companions, from the businesses harvesting cashews to the processing amenities, works instantly with farmer cooperatives and small-scale farmers and is licensed by Fairtrade Worldwide.
“With out correct oversight and laws, staff oftentimes get exploited, and little one labor is a large drawback throughout the agriculture sector,” Reed-Diawuoh says. “Fairtrade certifications try to take a strong and rigorous strategy to auditing all the companies and their provide chains, from producers to farmers to processors. They do on-site visits they usually audit monetary paperwork. We went by means of this over the course of an intensive three-month assessment.”
After importing cashew kernels, GRIA flavors and packages them at a manufacturing facility in Boston. Reed-Diawuoh began by promoting to small impartial retailers in Larger Boston earlier than scaling up GRIA’s on-line gross sales. He began ramping up manufacturing at first of 2023.
“Each time we promote our product, if individuals weren’t already accustomed to Fairtrade or moral sourcing, we offer data on our packaging and all of our collateral,” Reed-Diawuoh says. “We need to unfold this message in regards to the significance of moral sourcing and the significance of increase meals manufacturing in West Africa particularly, but additionally in rising economies all through the world.”
Making moral sourcing mainstream
GRIA at the moment imports a couple of ton of Fairtrade cashews and kernels every quarter, and Reed-Diawuoh hopes to double that quantity annually for the foreseeable future.
“For every pound, we pay premiums for the kernels, and that helps this ecosystem the place producers get compensated pretty for his or her work on the land, and agribusinesses are in a position to construct extra sturdy and worthwhile enterprise fashions, as a result of they’ve an finish marketplace for these Fairtrade-certified merchandise.”
Reed-Diawuoh is at the moment making an attempt out totally different packaging and flavors and is in discussions with companions to develop manufacturing capability and transfer into Ghana. He’s additionally exploring company collaborations and has supplied MIT with product over the previous two years for conferences and different occasions.
“We’re experimenting with totally different development methods,” Reed-Diawuoh says. “We’re very a lot nonetheless in startup mode, however actually making an attempt to ramp up our gross sales and manufacturing.”
As GRIA scales, Reed-Diawuoh hopes it pushes customers to begin asking extra of their favourite meals manufacturers.
“It’s completely vital that, if we’re sourcing produce in markets just like the U.S. from locations like West Africa, we’re hyper-focused on doing it in an moral method,” Reed-Diawuoh says. “The general purpose of GRIA is to make sure we’re adhering to and selling strict sourcing requirements and being rigorous and considerate about the way in which we import product.”
