Adding value in the global south
Creating local employment: one of the main pillars of Chalé Spirulina's aim to make a positive impact in Ghana. Besides our focus on producing high quality spirulina, from the beginning onwards, we have focused on employing the local workforce and creating an attractive work environment. Luckily, we are not the only company with this aim. In this blogpost, we will dive deeper into the trend of adding value in the global south!
First, let's look at one of the challenges the global south - and specifically a lot of African countries - has been facing over the past few centuries. The continent is rich in commodities, with a significant part of the world's cocoa, coffee, and cashew nuts (and a lot of other commodities) supply coming from African countries. However, most of these commodities are bought by multinationals at rock-bottom prices. Subsequently, they are shipped to countries in the global north where the value adding activities take place and big profits are made. The FairChain Foundation - which is focused on stimulating and supporting business models that contribute to a fair distribution of wealth across value chains - estimates that in the post-colonial period 24 times more value was taken out of the global south by large multinationals from the global north than development aid was given by their governments. Due to consumers becoming more conscious about the products they buy and technologies enabling more transparent supply chains, more initiatives have arised with the aim of creating more value in the global south.
We would like to point out some of our favourite initiatives, starting with Tony's Open Chain: an initiative by Tony's Chocolonely to create a fully transparent and fair cocoa supply chain. Earlier, they already created their own brand, which made consumers more conscious about the existing child labour and modern slavery. Now they also enable other brands to contribute to the same goal. Another great example of adding value in the global south is KOA Impact: a Swiss-Ghanaian company that transforms cocoa pulp, usually a waste product, into natural juice and other products. By placing their factory in Ghana, they create local employment. Finally, Johnny Cashew is a perfect example of making supply chains more fair and less polluting. Typically, cashews are sourced in Africa, processed in Asia, and afterwards shipped to western countries. Johnny Cashew, however, processes cashews locally in Africa, creating local jobs and minimising carbon emissions from long-distance transport. Other examples of value adding initiatives are Moyee Coffee, The Good Roll, Fairafric, Fiber Foods, and many more.
At Chalé Spirulina, we try to learn from these examples. A big part of our business model is based on other models that inspired us. Although spirulina is not a typical Ghanaian commodity, it grows perfectly in the local climate, allowing us to place all production stages in Kumasi making use of local resources. This does not only lead to more local employment, but also transfers knowledge about algae cultivation, especially by working together with universities and other educational institutes. Now that we have finished the construction of our first production facility, over the coming months we will focus on creating a good work environment and work towards the fist exports together.
