After four labor-intensive months, this year’s macadamia nut harvest is finished. From February until June, our organically certified smallholder farmers had a lot to do. Learn more about the facts here:
One harvest, many people
LIMBUA guarantees to buy the complete annual macadamia harvest from the more than 7,000 smallholder farmers in the region. More than 140 employees of LIMBUA have been involved in the harvest in various functions. Besides the purchase, this included for example the transportation of the nuts to the production sites. These are located close to the smallholder’s farms in the countryside. Therefore, short distances can be realized concerning the transportation of the macadamias as well as the commuting to work of the more than 700 production workers. Through the creation of regional jobs, the standard of living of the rural population has demonstrably risen.
Digital payment
Whenever the macadamia nuts are getting picked up at the farm, the smallholders are paid immediately and on site via an automated mobile payment software. The advantage of this cashless system via cell phone is that payments are processed punctually, securely and discreetly and reach the authorized recipients directly. Farmers therefore do not need to have a bank account and can use the money in their mobile wallets to pay for goods and services without the need to physically have paper money at hand.
During this year's harvest, consequentially, 27,936 cashless mobile transfers were made to the farmers!
In Kenya, this payment method (M-Pesa) is primarily used and is accordingly also the most advantageous for the macadamia smallholders. For this reason, all of the farmers working with LIMBUA have opted for the digital payment technology.
Traceability already at harvest
In order to ensure the greatest possible transparency, we have set up a comprehensive traceability system. The biofans software, which is the core of the system, enables the traceability of the entire macadamia supply chain from the farm via the production site to the logistics centers in Mombasa, Rotterdam and Bochum.
During this year's harvest, 2,165,942 traceability scans were performed during purchasing and drying alone - not including further processing and subsequent transportation. We are excited for the amount in the coming year.
Order Macadamia of the new harvest here
Olivia Nyaga from the LIMBUA team in the facility