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COMMUNITY
The most useful thing we do for a community is pay properly and come back. Everything else is secondary to that.
It is tempting for a trading company to describe its community work in terms of donations, because donations photograph well. We would rather be judged on the commercial arrangement, because that is what runs every season rather than once a year.
Paying a fair price at the collection point, in cash, on the day, moves more money into a community than any project we could fund, and it does it without anyone having to apply for it. How pricing works.
Beyond that we try to buy locally where we can. Haulage, bagging, storage labour and food during buying trips are all bought in the towns we work from rather than brought in from Accra. It is not charity; it is cheaper and it builds the relationships the business depends on.
Reliable seasonal income across many households does more, and does it more evenly, than a single visible project.
Drivers, labour, bags and services come from the towns we buy in, which keeps a second layer of income in the same place.
Money paid to an organised group is distributed with its members watching. Money paid to a middleman is not.
Continuity is what allows a household to plan. A buyer who appears once and disappears leaves nothing behind. The groups we buy from.
If you are buying from us and need detail on how a lot was sourced, ask. We would rather answer than be taken on trust.