Mango Project Update
Mango Business Project
UPDATES
Mango Business Update
Following the investigations that the 2018 TTV group undertook into the barriers to the export of mangoes from The Gambia which included spending a day on the Tesco Pepper Farm in Sussex where they learnt all about the processes of getting peppers from “Field to Fork”. While in The Gambia they met with individual mango growers, the Gunjur Mango Growers Cooperative (GMGC), Tropingo and Radville Farms that are already exporting mangoes on a small scale, the Youth Empowerment Programme and the UK High Commissioner Sharon Wardle.
Following these meetings they produced a far reaching report with recommendations for the ‘way forward’. This report was shared with the HRH Prince of Wales and HRH Duchess of Cornwall prior to their visit in The Gambia in November 2018 and subesquently has been shared with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Gambian Import and Export Promotion Agency and crucially the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO.
This has provoked a keen interest by these organisations demonstrated by FAO’s visit to Gunjur to meet with the GMGC and the scene is now set, thanks to the UK High Commissioner, for a meeting of all major stakeholders in the industry to meet at the UK High Commission in July 2019, the meeting to be chaired by HE Amie Fabureh, Minister of Agriculture but led by FAO and COLEACP (the Liason Committee for Europe, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) based in Brussels. The Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth has also expressed an interest in being present.
We hope that the outcome of this meeting will be the development of a national strategy for the development of the industry . What a triumph for the 2018 TTV group this will be as they recognise the key contribution they have made to the development of business and wealth creation in The Gambia and the impact this will have on migration out of the Gambia.
The 2018 Mango Business Project, guided by TTV’s co-director and Trustee, Dr Nick Maurice OBE, investigated the export opportunities for The Gambia’s mango industry. With the support of Fair Trade and the Marlborough branch of Tesco, the team of four young people drew up a business plan that outlines the potential for exporting mangos to West Africa and to Europe. It’s currently being read by potential investors and business developers and will hopefully prove instrumental in improving the lives of those in Gunjur through its development of the mango industry.
The Mango Business Project
The young volunteers on this project will be introduced to a real life project that will teach them about business processes and fair trade within both a national and international perspective. Experiencing the start of a business project that will have a huge impact on the local economy of Gunjur, so improving the health and wealth of this poor community and providing employment to the currently unemployed youth, will be empowering for the TTV volunteers as well as educational.
The Gambia
Thriving Through Venture has the backing of the President Barrow of The Gambia and the Government Minister, Dr Isatou Touray, in particular with regards to the Mango Business Project as this has the potential to have a very significant and positive impact on communities in The Gambia, starting with the Gunjur community.
Mango Business Mentors
Dr Nick Maurice
Allison Burden
Caro Strover
Baii Jabang
Dr Nick Maurice with Allison Burden and Caro Strover will be leading the Mango Business Project with Baii Jabang the director of Tarud, the Trust Agency for Rural Development in Gunjur.
FAIR-TRADE EVENT IN MARLBOROUGH
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Fair-trade Event in Marlborough 2018
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‘Great things in business are never done by one person.
They’re done by a team of people.’
– Steve Jobs