Aduna, the Africa-inspired health food brand & social business is seeking to create a global market for the Ghanaian baobab fruit, mainly grown in the Northern/Upper East Regions.
The company’s mission is to create demand for natural products from small-scale producers in Africa – starting with baobab.
To this end, the company has beaten 2,500 companies to reach the Final 10 of Virgin’s “Pitch to Rich” competition, and needs Ghanaians’ votes to win a GHS1.5m marketing campaign, which they will use to Make Baobab Famous and create sustainable livelihoods for 800,000 households in Northern Ghana.
Baobab is a nutrient-dense fruit that grows in Ghana’s severely-deprived Upper East Region and throughout Northern Ghana.
Baobab trees are entirely community-owned & wild-harvested. There are 8,000 communities in Northern Ghana alone that can supply baobab fruit from a crop that is so abundant, it goes mainly to waste.
Aduna Co-Founder & MD Andrew Hunt said: “Aduna is already sourcing baobab from 1,100 women in the Upper East, with average annual income increasing from just GHS 50 to GHS 600 – this is transformative. We need Ghanaians to take 10 seconds to vote for us so we can get Richard Branson’s backing to Make Baobab Famous and radically scale-up our work and contribute to creating potential income for about 800,000 women in Ghana.”
Aduna has pioneered a new model for development in rural Africa.
Recognizing the failure of the traditional aid model where donor-funds are invested in cash-crop “development projects” that ultimately fail due to lack of demand, Aduna focuses on creating a market for existing indigenous species that already grow in abundance.
The company invests heavily in marketing to builddemand for Africa’s under-utilised natural products then directs that demand to rural producers via its pro-poor supply chain.
Follow this link to vote: http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/pitch-to-rich/grow/aduna/
Source: ADUNA