News & Insights

How can private companies connect the SDGs with their smallholder supply chains – and what is the business case for doing so? These were the central questions of the Innovation Forum in London three weeks ago. Liesbeth Van Meulder attended the conference and shares her insights.

Better for the environment! Better for your health! Better for people and animals! Supermarkets and food companies in Belgium are constantly launching initiatives on sustainability. Time to assess the situation. In what areas are supermarkets heading in the right direction with their sustainability policy? And where are the sticking points?

We are looking for a new colleague to develop instruments, methodologies and processes to support the organisational Monitoring and Evaluation system in view of achieving Rikolto’s vision and mission. Deadline for applications: February 25th.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.

Between 29 January and 4 February 2018, representatives from 6 Regional Offices and Rikolto’s International Office met to design Rikolto’s International Food Smart Cities programme for the next four years.

On 30 November 2017, NICAFES, the Nicaraguan platform for sustainable coffee, was launched. The initiative brings together more than 25 unions, exporters, service providers, educational institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations supporting Nicaragua's coffee sector.

Since 2016, over 3,180 Vietnamese tea farmers have been trained by Rikolto (previously VECO) on sustainable land management practices as part of The Rainforest Alliance’s project “Mainstreaming Sustainable Management of Tea Production Landscapes”. Initial results show that farmers’ income has increased by an average of 30% due to a reduction in chemical use and higher prices for quality tea leaves.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.

From 12 to 14 January 2018, thousands of volunteers took on the streets and supermarkets of Belgium to raise funds for Rikolto's projects worldwide, as they do every year. It was the first annual campaign under our new name: Rikolto.

On 29 and 30 November 2017, a team of the Belgian Development Cooperation and the Belgian Embassy in Burkina Faso visited the women rice parboilers and rice producers of Douna. Exchanges with our partners allowed the visitors to appreciate the changes in their lives following Rikolto's 2014-2016 programme.

The Inca Food Trail is a culinary fundraising trip organized by Rikolto in November 2017. Along with Belgian chef Sofie Dumont and 15 adventurers with a passion for food, the tour is an opportunity to discover Peruvian gastronomy within sustainable food systems. With this trip, the participants support Rikolto and its projects aimed at sustainable food systems.

On December 6, 2017, our project 'Wanted: Food for the Future' won the Sustainable Partnerships Award of The Shift (the Belgian sustainability network). The award showcases the best examples of international collaboration between the public sector, companies and non-profit organizations.

Last week, our colleague Tom Van den Steen, Programme Advisor Planning, Learning & Accountability, visited coffee cooperative Kawa Kanzururu, engaging with over 600 coffee farmers on their experiences selling coffee to international buyers. Read his insights on implementing the Inclusive Business Scan in Eastern DR Congo here.

Alexander De Croo, Vice Minister and Minister of Foreign Aid of the Belgian Federal Government, visited Rikolto’s office in Leuven on October 20th. First, our colleagues highlighted our worldwide activities to make the food sector structurally more sustainable. Subsequently, the Minister led a panel talk in which the role of the government, business and development cooperation were discussed.

On the Dominican part of the island of Hispaniola, four shade-grown cacao varieties prevail in agroforestry systems: National, Trinitarian (from Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil), Criollo from Venezuela and a small amount of Forastero cacao from Brazil. These varieties were very carefully introduced to the island, which keeps a detailed record of the origins of its cacao.

Two researchers from the University of Wageningen visited the cocoa growing area in Polman district. They studied the business relations between the farmer organisation, called Amanah, and Mars. Our colleague Peni Agustijanto explains the role Rikolto plays in the cocoa sector in this area.

Colleague Jasmine Mushi, Agribusiness Advisor, shares the story of MUVIKHO, a Tanzanian cooperative of fruit and vegetable farmers which has grown from nothing to over 700 farmers in 4 years time, and now generates sales of over US$ 210,000 each year.

We are looking for a consultant to harmonise and optimise both the contacts (CRM) section and the programmatic sections of our Salesforce database. Deadline for applications: November 24th.

Mid-October a container of green coffee from North Kivu (DRC) arrived at Colruyt Group’s roasting centre in Ghislenghien. Colruyt Group and Rikolto have joined forces to support Kawa Kabuya, a cooperative of 2,200 small coffee growers. How? By guaranteeing a significant purchase volume for 3 years, 60% of which is paid for by pre-financing the harvest.

As of 30th September 2017, the first of several events worldwide took place to launch VECO’s new name: Rikolto. Rikolto is the Esperanto word for ‘harvest’. Rikolto wants farmers to have a brilliant harvest, and we want to especially harvest great new ideas and solutions to improve our food systems.  

Michael Munah, Agribusiness advisor for VECO, takes you along on a field visit trip to Simanjiro area in Tanzania. Read how his work gradually contributes towards more food security in the area.

Every three years we at Rikolto (previously Vredeseilanden/VECO) perform an extensive impact analysis of our development programmes. We have now made an effort to present these results on this page in a clear way. It is the first step of a work in progress. That is why in this blogpost we want to take a minute and think about how we go about measuring the impact of our work.

Starting an eco-tourism project? Selling innovative products like soap and cream made from cocoa? What are the opportunities for rural youth to tackle high unemployment rates? Six young Nicaraguan cocoa producers got inspired during an exchange trip in Honduras, to be able to set up their own start-ups in their home communities.

Global sales of most Fairtrade certified products continue to increase annually. But what about the farmer’s choice? Does he/she prefer producing for domestic markets, or is the advantage of complying to the Fairtrade standards bigger? A team of researchers from the University of Leuven have asked this question to rice farmers in Savalou, Benin, thus filling a gap in studies on Fairtrade.

How to scale up initiatives that build trust between actors in the food chain, while at the same time ensure the full participation of smallholder farmers? This blog post shares some key reflections from the workshop “Scaling up the trust networks for food safety with small farmers” where VECO Vietnam and its partners shared their experience on Participatory Guarantee Systems.

Will smallholder cocoa farmers remain competitive in Central America? This was the main question throughout a learning journey that was organised by The National Cocoa Value Chain Committee of Honduras, VECO Mesoamérica, Sustainable Food Lab and the World Cocoa Foundation. The experience aimed to stimulate a joint analysis for developing a common regional vision of a sustainable cocoa sector and a regional cocoa strategy adapted to climate change.

In October 2015, the Sustainable Rice Platform launched its Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation. Is it just another standard or label? Or is it something else? Our colleague Christ Vansteenkiste explains.

Germaine Furaha Mirindi conducted a study on the rice sector in South Kivu, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this province, VECO RDCongo supports the rice growers in becoming more professional and producing a higher quality and quantity in order to conquer the table rice market of Bukavu. The Congolese researcher shares her conclusions in this interview.