Zambia

Mpongwe Development Company

In the rainy season of 1996/7 wild mushroom drying trials were started by the Miombo Project (a forestry project founded by the European Union) at Mpongwe Farm Training Centre. The first organic certification took place by Ecocert in 1999. That year Mpongwe Development Company transferred the management of the mushroom project to the Mpongwe Coffee and Organic Smallholders Cooperative, which are comprised of MDC employees and other farmers in the area who have smallholdings on which they produce organic crops like groundnuts, sunflower and sesame. They are technical assisted by the Organic Producers & Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) with administrative support from MDC.

In 1999, MDC made their first exports to Tropical Wholefoods, as well as to U.S.A. Tropical Wholefoods currently purchase about 150 kgs of organic chanterelles per year from Mpongwe.

.The organisation of the project is as follows: each marketing/collecting point has an elected leader with two assistants to organise the population in their area. There are 14 collections points registered within 4 zones. There are up to 300 pickers per collection point and 90% are women. The collection points are located roughly 50km around the MDC plantation. The leaders have to control the grading operation of the mushrooms on site and identify the variety delivered by the pickers. A buyer from Mpongwe Coffee and Organic Smallholders Cooperative buys the wet mushrooms from collection points twice a week.

On arrival at the coffee factory, the mushrooms are weighed, washed with water or cleaned with sponge, graded, sliced by hand or by slicing machine, dried by hot air on racks in a drying machine, sorted, packed, labelled and stored in 5 kg weight boxes. The equipment is steam cleaned with water with no addition of chemical products. The finished products are stored in a dedicated organic room in the coffee factory unit.

This wild harvest project and its associated market provide motivation to the population for preserving the environment. As in most regions in Zambia slash and burn agriculture has a significant negative effect on the woodlands.

Tropical Forest Honey

In 2005 Tropical Wholefoods purchased more than 6 tonnes of Organic Rainforest honey from Tropical Forest Products (TFP) who import honey from the Kabompo Beekeepers of North West Zambia. Over 6000 beekeepers supply Tropical Forest Products with honey. We use their delicious Organic Fairtrade honey in most of our cereal bars. For more information, visit www.tropicalforest.com