Kennemer Foods International
Kennemer Foods International is a sustainable commodity company based in the Philippines. Apart from producing cocoa and other crops, it supports smallholder farmers and contributes to forest conservation in a three-layered landscape model. The products and programs encompass the complete agricultural value-chain from planting materials, training, agri-technology to market.
In the lowlands, Kennemer help farmers increase their yields and become more professional. This creates jobs in these areas, so that young people don’t need to cut down trees to start unprofitable farms in the midlands. In the midlands, Kennemer invests in afforestation (planting trees) and run a grower programme. The programme introduces farmers to a multi-crop agroforestry system as an alternative to slash and burn agriculture. In partnership with Kennemer, member farmers get access to public grants and provides them with quality seedlings for succeeding growth cycles.
Clusteriing farmers into groups makes marketing and input buying more efficient. Kennemer provides a guaranteed market not only for cocoa, but also for other fruits and grains. This means that farmers have a continuous and long-term income from diverse sources.
Several grower communities are self-organised and many of them are women-led. Cocoa is a gender-neutral crop because it is harvested slowly. If the trees are close to their home, women can go there once a week and pick the pods.