UGANDA VINES In 2018, Frontier Co-op joined a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to implement the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded ‘Uganda VINES’ project. The goal of this five-year, $13 million project is to help Ugandan vanilla farmers: • increase agricultural productivity • strengthen the enabling environment • expand trade of safe, high-quality vanilla • increase access to markets As part of this team, Frontier Co-op provides technical assistance related to food safety and post-harvest handling. Since inception, Frontier Co-op has helped to design food safety training courses, such as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), and to review and finalize basic and intermediate audit processes. This project is the perfect example of how doing good, works. By improving the quality of processed vanilla from this region, these processors and their networks of smallholder farmers are able to diver- sify their revenue streams and increase their incomes, which can then be reinvested back into their families, their communities, and their businesses. Additionally, COVID-19 served to highlight the global risks involved in sourcing from a single origin. This is further exacerbated by worsening climate disasters, economic recessions, and saturated markets. For Frontier Co-op, this project is an important long-term investment that is helping to build the technical capacity of producers and processors in a new origin. It helps us to mitigate risk across our vanilla supply chain by diversifying our sourcing partners and helps to increase sustainable, economic opportunities for the growing communities we support across Uganda. By the end of project in 2025, the program is expected to have reached more than 16,000 farmers and increased export of cured vanilla nearly threefold. This partnership is a great example of how a responsible sourcing strategy can have a positive impact in farming communities around the world.
FARMER RESILIENCY IN MADAGASCAR Frontier Co-op has made contributions to various projects with part- ners in Madagascar for years, from helping to build and run schools to helping improve the resiliency of their crops and their businesses. In 2021, we took on our most impactful project to date. In partner- ship with our supplier, Virginia Dare, Frontier Co-op has committed $240,000 over three years to a multi-faceted project in the SAVA region in northern Madagascar where our vanilla is grown. Together, we are working to stabilize and improve the standard of living for vanilla producers in the region while promoting sustainable and quality production. The first component of the project focuses on improving food security and income diversification in the region. With support from the Duke Lemur Center, the project is supporting young farmers as they implement an integrated and diversified regenerative agro-forestry model including the promotion of not only cash crops like vanilla, but also subsistence crops. The second component of the project encourages vanilla cooperatives to use village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) to build their financial resilience. The VSLA model is a self-managed lending group comprised of usually 10-25 members who offer savings, insurance, and credit services to participating members. This system offers a unique financial service that is inclusive, stable, and independent.
Photo (top): A farmer smiles over a healthy harvest of vanilla beans. Photos (right): Women sort and carry the vanilla beans to the facility in Uganda.
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