News & Insights

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.

The collaboration between Swiss company Chocholats Halba and the Producers Association of Agroforestry Systems in the department of Olancho (Honduras) has gained interest at national and international level. It led to the start of a new ambitious project to create new jobs in smallholder farmers’ communities, and at the same time reforesting Olancho.

On March 27-28, VECO took the opportunity to present its ideas on Food Smart Cities at the Cracking the Nut Conference in Thailand. The conference focusses on cracking the tough nuts associated with supporting food systems to meet urban demand.

Young people will inherit one of the greatest challenges that we have all started to struggle with even today: how to feed a rapidly growing world population. VECO Indonesia and VECO Belgium teamed up to visit a high school in Bali, SMAN 4, to speak with the students and learn more about what they envision as food for the future. Read this article and watch a short video to find out what these young people think about the challenges in Indonesia.

VECO Andino, the National Coffee Board (JNC) and WeFarm join forces to give 600 coffee families access to knowledge through the use of WeFarm technology. The platform allows farmers to discuss the issues they experience over SMS.

Compared to the start of VECO's coffee programme in Indonesia three years ago, we see that the opinion of women is much more valued and taken into account. Marselina Walu is one of them. She pushes back against the stereotypical images of farming that, in Indonesia, are usually dominated by men.

British and American investment funds are demanding Unilever to increase its value for shareholders. Reading that, a particular cartoon by the New Yorker sprung to the mind of our colleague Jelle Goossens. “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

The question about our food future concerns many of today’s food experts, civil actors, policy makers and academics. Louise Fresco is one of them. As a food expert of the University of Wageningen she has been honoured by the University of Leuven for her groundbreaking research on this topic. In return she took us on a journey to our Foodture by sharing her experience, research and dreams.

Large buyers show renewed interest for Congolese Arabica. Yet the plantations are old and the production needs to be increased. After working with farmer organisations for the production of new seedlings, VECO changed its paradigm and now co-invests in the businesses of private nursery growers.

VECO Indonesia’s cinnamon farmer organisation partner in Kerinci, TAKTIK, and their long-time buyer PT Agripro Tridaya Nusantara (ATN) have recently made a major breakthrough by establishing a 5-year joint operation.

On Thursday 16 February, Vredeseilanden/VECO was invited to reveal the new school programme 'GoodFood@School' during a seminar organised by the Flemisch educational council (Vlor) and the Department of Education and Training.

For the third year in a row, Kawa Kabuya Cooperative has won the annual Taste of Harvest Competition.

On March 27, our colleagues Nataly Pinto and Gert Engelen will present our plans to work on Food Smart Cities in Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia and Belgium.

Indonesia is now officially the world’s 16th largest economy. What does it take to feed the country and to satisfy the new fast-growing consuming class that demands healthy food? How can we learn from Tanzanian passion fruit farmers to build a better food system? Fruits and vegetables are part of important export commodities in Tanzania, yet feeding their cities with healthy food still proves very challenging.

On 13, 14 & 15 January, as every year, more than 8,000 volunteers will take to the streets of Belgium and sell a small gadget to support Vredeseilanden/VECO.