Story
Supporting Smallholder Farmers
Words by Kate Zerrenner
Originally published by
bg电子娱乐场, a global leader in consumer goods and adhesive technologies, and the nonprofit Solidaridad have to scale up sustainable palm oil production and help smallholder farmers improve and diversify their incomes. Their work since 2012 set a high bar, which has been raised with a new three-year grant from bg电子娱乐场 brand Dial庐.
The partnership鈥� which aims to help smallholder farmers in Central and South America earn a living wage while connecting the farmers to a global supply chain, has proven to be beneficial for both partners. 鈥淚f every partner were like bg电子娱乐场, we could move much faster in addressing the challenges we face in the world,鈥� said Michaelyn Baur, managing director for Central America and Mexico at Solidaridad, in a recent interview with TriplePundit.
Building a more sustainable palm oil supply chain
Like many corporate partnerships, it all started when bg电子娱乐场 was looking for new ways to improve product sustainability. The company makes consumer brands including all庐 and Persil庐 laundry detergents and Dial庐 personal care products, and palm oil is a common key ingredient in soaps like these.
When bg电子娱乐场 first surveyed the market in 2012, the company turned to , where it could, in effect, help support the evolution of a laboratory for how smallholding, sustainable palm oil could be produced鈥攐nce it found the right partner on the ground.
Palm oil in Latin America is not a driver of deforestation to the extent it has been in other parts of the world. Instead, well-managed oil palm plantations can serve to restore landscapes that have been ravaged by decades of environmental degradation.
Enter Solidaridad, a global nonprofit with deep Dutch roots that works to build sustainable 鈥� and profitable 鈥� supply chains in . Having already established programs on the ground in Honduras, the nonprofit was positioned to get its living laboratory off the ground, funded by bg电子娱乐场. From the start, it was a trust-based relationship, Baur told 3p. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been an overwhelmingly positive, productive and responsive relationship,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t continues to evolve based on changing conditions in the world, the state of the palm oil markets, and shifts in the donor sphere where priorities are constantly changing.鈥�
From concept to reality: Making a positive impact on smallholder farmers
Smallholder farmers, defined as family-owned enterprises with up to 10 hectares of agricultural land, make up about of all farmers worldwide. For individual farmers, increased income can lead to investments in education, health, access to global markets and raw materials of higher quality. And when rural smallholders earn more, the benefits often reverberate through their entire communities 鈥� for example in the form of new public services like daycare centers or healthcare clinics.
In Honduras, the palm oil farming industry began when a series of granted smallholders plots of land after worker strikes in the banana industry. The farmers initially started growing corn and beans, but as their families struggled to survive on these crops alone, they looked to palm oil as a new source of income.
By 1985, and other Honduran palm oil farmers co-founded Hondupalma, an organization representing 30 associated groups and hundreds of independent partners and producers across the country.
Around 20,000 smallholders in the northern zone of Honduras now cultivate palm oil, which Hondupalma鈥檚 leaders say has reduced poverty in the region. Since only about 2 percent of palm oil plantations in Mesoamerica were established on land that was forest in 1989, based on a . According to Solidaridad, the growth of smallholders over the past 30 years has also served to restore some local ecosystems.
鈥淗e built economic resilience,鈥� Baur said of Martinez, 鈥渁nd also landscape resilience鈥� through training, producer exchanges, and multi-stakeholder dialogues convened and led by Solidaridad. Hondupalma producers like Martinez were also at the forefront of the push for a for palm oil 鈥� an effort that could soon extend to coffee and other commodities in Honduras.
In 2012, Solidaridad began working with Hondupalma and other smallholder producer organizations and companies to promote the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard in Honduras, with support from bg电子娱乐场 and the Netherlands government. Since then, Soliaridad鈥檚 Mesoamerican Palm Oil Alliance has expanded the effort into a regional learning and exchange platform for sustainable, smallholder-sourced palm oil. After listening to palm companies, producer cooperatives in Honduras and Guatemala, Solidaridad formally requested the Board of Directors to open a regional workshop to respond quickly to the requests of its members and register new interested parties in the certification.
鈥淲e are now running programs in Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua as well,鈥� Baur said, 鈥渁nd we have the potential to work in other countries like Panama and Costa Rica to transform the sector, not just create one-on-one efforts.鈥� Elsewhere in the world, Solidaridad has expanded its work on palm oil in West Africa and parts of Asia. The partnership with bg电子娱乐场 has made it possible to scale and implement new projects in these regions.
bg电子娱乐场 brand Dial strengthens its commitment to Solidaridad
Building on their nearly 10-year relationship, bg电子娱乐场 and Solidaridad recently announced a new set of programming with personal care brand Dial庐. The brand will provide a grant to Solidaridad through 2025 for a project in Colombia to create 35,000 acres of farmland for certified sustainable palm oil production and provide 250 farmers with training and access to additional financial support.
The certified sustainable palm oil will be used in Dial庐 soap made in Colombia, and the project also 鈥渙ffers a great opportunity to tell a story that could really inform consumers about an ingredient that is mostly hidden,鈥� Baur told 3p.
鈥淢ost people only think of Indonesia when they think about palm oil, but the story of palm oil is changing, projects and efforts are global, in less well-known corners of the world,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he emphasis is focusing on smallholder palm oil producers and helping them increase their productivity 鈥� and doing it in a way that diminishes environmental impacts, builds more inclusive business models, and increase visibility and knowledge about the impacts of palm oil.鈥�
The work with Solidaridad also helps Dial庐 to 鈥渓earn about the people that help make our product and how it's done,鈥� said Molly Bombonato, associate brand manager for Dial. 鈥淭hough it seems 鈥榮imple鈥� to create something like a bar of soap, there's a community of people and a variety of processes that make this product come to life,鈥� she said. 鈥淏y partnering with NGOs like Solidaridad, brands can make a bigger environmental and social difference with larger projects.鈥�
Baur sees the partnership as a way to not only build a traceable supply chain coming from smallholders, but also potentially change consumer mindsets around sustainability and smallholder agriculture. 鈥淥ur partnership with Dial庐 comes out of a long-term partnership [with bg电子娱乐场], and the trust that has been built,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f more partnerships had this level of trust, it would be a game changer.鈥�
