How can one company solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and food safety and all it does is grow fresh fruits and vegetables.
Golden Cat is a two year old mission-driven, company doing just that, in Rwanda.
Rwanda is a poor, but quickly developing country. 80% of the population are smallholder farmers. Half of the 11 million people are under the age of 18.
In order to feed this growing population, the government is clearing forests to make more farmland, but not doing enough to increase the productivity of those farms.
Enter Golden Cat, currently working with 250 smallholder farmers, growing French beans, sugar snaps, passion fruit, and habanero peppers, increasing production by 50%, and increasing income of the farmers by exporting the best of that produce to Europe.
The income of the farmers working with Golden Cat has doubled. This raises the farmers’ standards of living, helps to keep their children in school, and sets up those youth to be ready for the more developed Rwanda coming in their lifetime.
All this from collecting, packing, and shipping fruits and vegetables to customers in the UK, the Netherlands, and France.
From seed to bean, bean to box, Golden Cat is producing the highest quality produce, meeting all the food safety requirements set by the EU. In addition, everything is traceable back to the individual farm where it was grown.
The goal is to create the largest grower and exporter of fresh horticultural products not only in Rwanda, but in the whole of East Africa. With the best rainfall patterns in the region, and plenty of sun, four harvests per year is possible.
But to do that the company needs drip irrigation systems, greenhouses and shade nets, cold rooms and refrigerated trucks.
Come talk to the founder, Peter Gatheru at Demo Day to learn more.
