Oser Communications Group

FOODIES FOCUS www.kitchenwarenews.com n AUGUST 2018 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 1 9 Ginger is an annual crop, planted every year in spring and harvested in autumn. In Fiji, that means the farmers plant in September and then harvest about half the crop in February. The rest of the ginger is left in the ground to continue growing for a later harvest of mature rhizomes with more fiber and spicier juice. The Ginger People is in the process of developing a juicing plant in Fiji to process that second crop, which will produce an ingredient for The Ginger People Turmeric and Ginger Shots. " We are already getting limited quantities of turmeric and ginger f rom these farmers for our own brand, but next year, we'll be able to buy f rom farmers for an extended period of February through November, so they have the opportunity for cash flow most of the year," Bruce said. Lisa Curtis was working as a Peace Corps volunteer in west Af rica when she discovered the moringa tree, a deciduous tree native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas and widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. Its leaves and young seed pods are widely used as vegetables, with the leaves being a significant source of B vitamins, vitamin C and K and other essential nutrients. "I started eating moringa for my own health," she says. "The leaves have more nutrition than kale and are a complete protein. It wasn't really eaten because it wasn't being cultivated." When she asked local people why they weren't cultivating and harvesting their moringa, they pointed out to her that they didn't see a point, since they had no market for it. At the same time, interest in superfoods was exploding back home, and Curtis came back to the U.S. determined to help her Af rican farmer f riends, many of them women, take advantage of that. "I wanted to help those women get access to the American market and to improve their own nutrition as well," she said. "Kuli Kuli's mission is to improve nutrition and the equipment or training to evaluate the flavor or quality of their beans– they were simply selling them as a commodity, almost never having tasted the final chocolate product. TCHO wanted to produce chocolates that highlighted the wide range of flavors inherent to cocoa beans, such as berries, nuts and citrus, but the cacao farmers who'd never really tasted chocolate didn't know how to produce and select for the flavor characteristics that TCHO was seeking. "For the sourcing process, we would call up the co-op and ask for a fruity flavor profile. They'd send samples, and we'd taste them and reject nine out of ten," Sweitzer said. "Very inefficient." The company responded by developing TCHO flavor labs, small bean-to-bar chocolate making labs, and training farmers to manufacture chocolate in small scale f rom their cocoa beans, so that they can test samples of their beans to make chocolate they can taste. That gives them the information they need to evaluate their beans, to compare quality in different lots and even to experiment with growing methods. "Right where the farmers are growing the cocoa, they're better able to understand the quality of the cocoa," Kintzer said. "This was something that had never been done before in the chocolate world." "When a co-op has a TCHO flavor lab, they can conduct regular experiments with their production. For example, segregating and processing one batch versus mixing with producers a few miles away. What would happen if they just pick a certain varietal?" Sweitzer explained. "It really allows them to deconstruct a lot of the har vesting and processing steps and determine how those affect flavor. It 's giving farmers the tools to be cocoa scientists, they even share a lot of this information with TCHO. We're learning much of this information for the first time as they execute these experiments and share the results with us." The farmers benefit f rom this deepened livelihood through nutrition-rich plants like moringa." "We are now working with over 1,000 farmers, primarily small farmers, women's co-ops and family farmers across 11 different countries in west Af rica and South America," she added. "We've planted over 1 million moringa trees. We've put close to $2 million back into these rural communities growing moringa." In the 4-1/2 years that Kuli Kuli has been on the market with its product line that now includes Moringa Superfood Bars, Pure Moringa Powder, Energizing Moringa Herbal Tea, and Moringa Green Energy shots, Kuli Kuli's farmers have scaled up their production and are finding ways to include moringa in school feeding programs to improve their community's nutrition. " We have found that, for the majority of our farmers, moringa is their most profitable crop, more than millet or corn or whatever else they 're growing," Curtis said. "They've used that money to send their kids to school, to buy medicine for their families. In sur veys, they say they've increased their own consumption of moringa." For craft choclate maker TCHO, investing in cacao farmers pays dividends in higher- quality cocoa beans for the company 's chocolate bars as well as to farmers who get a premium price for their better beans, according to TCHO Chief Chocolate Maker Brad Kintzer and Laura Sweitzer, who manages the TCHO Source Program. " W hen we're able to work together to understand all aspects of cocoa quality, there are two benefits: one, the cocoa farmers are able to increase the value of their cocoa, and second, that we're able to get a consistent supply of great cocoa, which increases the quality of our chocolate," Kintzer said. The company works with farmers in various cocoa-growing regions around the world but found, initially that the farmers who were growing the beans didn't have understanding of their product by commanding a higher price for a higher quality product. "It's very empowering for farmers to understand the quality of the product they're offering, and it gives them a stronger position at the buyer's table," Sweitzer said. "These TCHO labs allow them to taste all of their product offerings and strategically segment them for their different buyers, regions, and applications. As a result of the labs and trainings, our producer partners truly understand what characteristics TCHO is looking for in cacao beans. Today, we rarely reject samples f rom these groups. This efficiency allows TCHO to pay a very nice quality premium for the beans they send us." TCHO has directly installed 10 of these flavor labs, comprised of simple equipment that can be maintained locally, and the number has grown to more than 35 in Latin America alone as other cocoa co- ops have visited the TCHO flavor labs and taken the concept home with them. Seven farmer co-ops working with TCHO in Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic have received more than $5 million in premiums specifically for quality since they started training with TCHO and tasting their beans, according to Sweitzer. "That doesn't even count Fair Trade or organic, [for which separate premiums are paid]" she said. "We're just talking about the money specifically for quality." " The TCHO Source Program is the heartbeat of TCHO to ensure that TCHO can get the high-quality cocoa we need and to ensure that our producer partners get the price they need and the tools they need to innovate. It's putting tools at origin to create the best quality cacao beans possible," Kintzer said. "When you close the gaps between the manufacturer and the farmers, both sides benefit tremendously. They learn so much f rom us, and we learn a lot f rom them, and then we're both positioned to become better businesses." KN Specialty Food Market… (cont. from Page 18) decisions about where and how to spend their money are meaningful. " There's research out that is pointing at the point that consumers feel they have more power in how they spend their money than in how they vote," Fikes said. "That 's why we urge our grocers to be clear and to communicate about their values, about where they stand on these issues, so that when consumers are doing their research, they can espouse what the company values are." Retailers can demonstrate that they're open, honest and trustworthy by helping customers find out what 's in a product and where it came f rom. They can show that they impose strict food safety standards on suppliers, follow Fair Trade they want. That doesn't mean telling them ever ything you want them to know. It means paying attention to what they want to know and answering those questions." Shoppers also expect their grocers to be proactive and accountable. Those qualities can be demonstrated by quick action when there's a product recall and accepting responsibility for making it right when there's a problem with a product. Consumers also want to see fair treatment for employees up and down the supply chain, according to Fikes. "There's a great halo of accountability and loyalty that can be had if your store has the reputation of treating employees fairly," he said. "They [shoppers] sense whether or not an employee enjoys working there and practices and earn their reputation for selling high-quality goods. Shoppers also like product guarantees and reasonable return policies, and they expect to know about it f rom their grocer when a food safety issue results in a recall, according to the FMI research. Shoppers don't necessarily want all this information about their grocer's values force-fed to them, but they want their grocers to be open in their answers to these questions as they're asked, according to Fikes. "Transparency is not simply a business negotiation; it is also about relationship building," he said. "You are sharing openly and honestly and, this is key, you are answering the questions they have, that they are able to find answers whether they're being treated fairly." It 's still uncertain whether online retailers are being held to these same standards, and FMI has research that will be coming out in the Institute's 2018 trends report that will be delving into that question, Fikes said. While we wait for that, he has some advice for all grocery retailers: "In the age of skepticism, where people are skeptical of big business and their motives, we have to break that down and let people know that our business is comprised of people who share the values that they share," he said. "The only people that folks seem to trust are family and f riends and people who share their values. You've got to lead with the shared values to establish the rapport." KN Shared Values Create Customer Loyalty (cont. from Page 18)

• Cover