Eight years of start-up aid for fairer trade

Fine chocolate from the rainforest, blossom rice from the Himalayas or spicy sauces from East Africa: micro-producers around the world make excellent products, but they lack access to a profitable market. We launched our platform for crowd projects in 2016 with the aim of supporting such producers with our expertise and enabling them to export for the first time. The technology of our access to market platform is now getting on in years - updating the technology would be too much work. We are therefore discontinuing it. 

Over the past eight years, the platform has enabled over 60 producer groups from all over the world to export for the first time. The successful projects brought added value and future prospects for the producers, while others failed due to the numerous challenges of international trade. Read about the highlights and setbacks here.

The greatest successes 

Bhutan Blossoms offered their teas, risottos and spice salts with flowers from the Himalayas three times via our platform. Based on the feedback from supporters, the team continued to develop their products each time. Bhutan Blossoms now has its own webshop where you can order their specialities via crowd order. 

Choco Samona sold a total of 7000 bars of chocolate made from high-quality single-origin cocoa from the rainforest in Ecuador via our platform - more units than any other project! The chocolatiers from the rainforest are still producing chocolate. It is currently available to pre-order on the Mind Up Food platform. 

Isule's project to bring hand-picked Arabica coffee from western Uganda to Europe via our platform began in 2016. The project has since developed into a successful company with its own online shop and coffee truck. 

The two initial imports that we carried out together with gebana Togo were also very successful. Both the chocolate produced entirely in Togo and the Fonio millet variety were sold out within a very short time. Due to the great popularity of the products, we decided to add both to our range. You can order the Fonio here. The chocolate from Togo is expected to be available in our shop beginning in autumn 2024. 

It doesn't always work out 

In 2019, the team behind the Makasi project approached us to offer straws made from bamboo from the island of Bali via our platform. Unfortunately, the project started shortly before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Our partners in Indonesia were forced to return to their home islands. We were no longer able to reach them and had to cancel the project.

When exporting food for the first time, small businesses often lack the experience to pack their goods correctly and optimise storage and transport conditions. Despite the best possible support from us, a few products arrived inedible. The spice mixes from Tanzania that arrived in 2021, for example, contained mouldy peppercorns and we had to launch a recall campaign. Unfortunately, we were unable to deliver the dal from Nepal to the supporters at the end of 2023 because some of the lentil grains contained dust-like foreign bodies that we were unable to identify.

The biggest hurdles: Pandemic and coups

The project where supporters had to wait the longest for their pre-ordered product, or rather still have to, is the Traceable TreeShirt from Burkina Faso. Together with the fashion label NIKIN, the development organisation ecos and the ETH start-up Haelixa, we launched the project at the end of 2019 with the aim of producing a traceable T-shirt with organic cotton from Burkina Faso.

Over 4 years later, we have still not been able to deliver the shirt (as of July 2024). The pandemic, the volatile organic cotton market in Burkina Faso and the two military coups in the country caused new delays for the project.

The export of tea and coffee from Myanmar by the start-up Nat Coffee was one of the most challenging projects on our platform. Due to the military coup in Myanmar in 2021, there were severe delays in shipping the tea and the first shipment spoilt. On the second attempt, only one of two parcels arrived at our warehouse. The startup founder therefore brought part of the delivery with her personally on her return journey. The coffee from Myanmar was again confiscated by the military regime and could not be exported.

Crowdfunding for Burkina Faso and the Swiss referendum campaign

In addition to providing start-up support for micro-producers, we also used our platform for our own crowdfunding campaigns. At the end of 2017, we asked our community for help to save our subsidiary in Burkina Faso. The company had run into financial difficulties due to a poor mango harvest and a sharp rise in cashew prices. Supporters were able to pre-order cashews and dried mangoes from Burkina Faso on our platform with the prospect of receiving them in 5 years' time - provided the company was still in existence. 2841 people supported us with a total of CHF 766,564, which we used to make our subsidiary profitable again. Today, gebana Burkina Faso is in the black and we were able to deliver the promised products to our supporters in 2022.

Four years later, we launched a new crowdfunding campaign for gebana Burkina Faso. The company is now successful again, but our local processing plant is increasingly reaching the limits of its capacity. With the Walls Against Walls project, we collected donations to build a new, larger factory. In return, supporters were able to choose a print of one of the artworks provided by various artists. 2082 people supported our project. Together with venture capital from a foundation, we were able to raise 960,569 euros for our project. The Belle usine is currently under construction!

In 2020, we also supported the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative (KOVI). Donations could be made via our platform to support the referendum campaign. In return, donors received chocolate bars made with cocoa from gebana Togo. We collected a total of 186,720 francs. Unfortunately, the initiative was narrowly defeated at the ballot box in November 2020.

Information on ongoing projects

For the following crowd projects, the project teams have not yet been able to deliver their products to supporters. Here is the current status of the projects (last updated at the end of January 2025):

• Brazil nuts from Suriname
  The nuts have arrived in Europe and are on their way to our warehouses. We expect to deliver the products by the end of January 2025.
  
  
• Brazil nut spread from Bolivia
  

  The project team is currently organising the final missing documents for export. We anticipate that customers will receive the products by April 2025.

• Traceable TreeShirt from Burkina Faso
  The TreeShirts have been produced. After completing a final quality check, delivery is expected around February or March 2025.