Author Archives: Stacey

International Year of Co-operatives

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The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution declaring 2012 the UN International Year of Co-operatives on December 18, 2009.

The UN resolution entitled ‘Co-operatives in Social Development’ recognises the diversity of the co-operative movement around the world and urges governments to take measures aimed at creating a supportive environment for the development of co-operatives. Click here to go to the UN IYC website to find out more about the UN Resolution and about other UN IYC activities.

The International Year of Co-operatives, or IYC, celebrates a different way of doing business, one focused on human need not human greed, where the members, who own and govern the business, collectively enjoy the benefits instead of all profits going just to shareholders.

Having an International Year of Co-operatives provides an opportunity to captivate the attention of national governments, the business community and, most importantly, the general public on the advantages provided by the co-operative model.

As a co-operative supporting co-operatives this is an exciting time for Shared Interest. Our members invest anything between £100 and £20,000 with us. We then lend these funds out to groups such as Naranjillo.

Peruvian Fairtrade cocoa producers, Naranjillo are using financing from Shared Interest to develop their cocoa processing plant. This should increase productivity as well as improve the co-operative’s efficiency and sustainability. Regional Development Executive Paul Sablich said: “Thanks to our funds, Naranjillo was able to expand its Fairtrade cocoa sales to Europe and the United States. We hope to continue helping their growth in the future, for the sake of the 2,500 cocoa farmers that make up the co-operative.”

To find out more about the IYC and how you can get involved, visit www.2012.coop to find out more about Shared Interest and how you can invest visit http://www.shared-interest.com/invest.htm

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Vanilla Farming in Africa

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Those Shared Interest members amongst our readers will recognise the above image from the Christmas card that we sent out last month.

Kisembo Saburole Jockas is a vanilla farmer from a village called Bumate in Bundibugyo District in the West of Uganda bordering the DR Congo. He is a member of a farming co-operative set up by Shared Interest’s customer Gourmet Gardens.  

Kisembo said: “I joined this group because many of the other buyers in the area play games with us, squeeze prices or only take the very best beans.  Some even forget to pay at all!  Gourmet Gardens accepts all good vanilla and pays fair prices.  They also provide advice on organic farming and pay without delay.”

Gourmet Gardens was set up in 2002 with the aim of becoming “renowned for outstanding products that are produced in harmony with nature and in a sustainable and fair relationship with the local producer.”

During the years of the war, the people of Congo suffered extensively and the local economy still offers few employment opportunities, despite the relative peace that has returned to the area. Agriculture is one of the worst hit sectors of the economy.

Our members’ capital helps Gourmet Gardens with their cash flow, enabling them to pay farmers at harvest time rather than once the order has been processed. In the case of vanilla it often takes up to 12 months to complete the harvest to sale process. This pre-payment is a great help to the likes of Kisembo.

Gourmet Gardens’ Operations Manager, Clemens Fehr said: “Establishing and running an organic and Fairtrade certified farmer group within the DRC is challenging. However, over the years we have found ways to deal with most of these issues. The exception remained access to adequate finance. The support of Shared Interest means that for the coming season onwards we will be able to buy the whole vanilla crop from the project group and we will be able to assure timely payments.”

“The co-operation with Shared Interest means adequate and long-term access to finance.”

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Feeling Festive at Shared Interest HQ

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Every year following the December board meeting Shared Interest staff and board members take part in a festive challenge.

Last year we were faced with a particularly difficult quiz. This year we went down a more creative route and were tasked with decorating Christmas cakes.

Surprisingly all teams took the challenge very seriously and there were some pretty impressive results.

In other festive news the 2011 Christmas card should be with all members by now, if you haven’t received yours please get in touch with the team.

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Newcastle University Honours David Nussbaum

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We are delighted to announce that Shared Interest non-executive director, David Nussbaum has been awarded an honorary degree from Newcastle University for his outstanding achievements in fields related to Sustainability.

David became Chief Executive of WWF-UK in 2007 and chairs the international WWF network’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative. As well as serving on the Shared Interest Board he is also a non-executive director of Low Carbon Accelerator, sits on the Marks & Spencer Executive Advisory Board on Sustainability and is Chair of the ACCA’s Global Forum for Sustainability.

Patricia Alexander, Managing Director of Shared Interest said: “We are incredibly proud of David’s achievements. His commitment to sustainability is outstanding and his knowledge and experience are of great value to Shared Interest.”

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Recent Lending FECAFEM

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Fecafem, in Ecuador, is a second level cooperative of three associations with a total of 250 coffee farmers. It is experiencing a significant increase in export sales following its achievement of Fairtrade certification this year. Shared Interest is providing the loan finance to help it expand.

Fecafem has also won its first order to supply Fairtrade peanuts. Some of the coffee farmers are also growing peanuts to diversify their income. Peanuts have a shorter production cycle and earlier harvest than coffee.

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Recent Lending APOQ

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APOQ

Apoq is a co-operative of over 250 banana farmers located in the northern coastal region of Peru. It is the latest of several banana co-operatives in the region to take out a Shared Interest loan to improve its production infrastructure.

By installing cableways and buying a water tanker and two new trucks Apoq will increase production and reduce losses.

This will enable them to pay the farmers more for their crops and invest more in social and environmental programmes.

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Zip across the Tyne

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Fancy joining the 25 of Shared Interest staff and volunteers who are rising – quite literally – to our latest fundraising challenge?

There are 5 places left for our Zip Slide Challenge which will see our adventurous volunteers travel 230 meters across the Tyne at 25mph on the 29th October 2011. New volunteers are asked to raise £85 for Shared Interest Foundation. £35 covers the cost of the experience and the remaining £50 will be used to support the Foundation in its mission to help producers in the developing world to create a sustainable income for their families.

To get involved all you need to do is contact Shared Interest Foundation on 0191 233 9129 or email andrea.vanwagtendonk@shared-interest.com to book your place.

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Shared Interest Cyclists make it Cross Country

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This weekend a group of Shared Interest employees and the family and friends they convinced to join in headed to Whitehaven in Cumbria where they embarked on a three day, 140 mile cycle across the country that took them to Keswick, then Alston before reaching their final destination of Tynemouth on Sunday afternoon.

I was lucky enough to be involved…without actually doing any cycling! Supporter Relations Officer (North), Ruth Taylor and I were officially the support team and had the job of driving the van that transported the bikes, luggage and more importantly the team’s lunches. Thankfully our rapid response services weren’t really needed, aside from the time Finance Director, Tim Morgan got lost but we won’t go into that….

It was great to be involved in the process and see the effort that went into raising over £2,000 that will be used by the Foundation to support small scale businesses in the developing world.

The weekend was lots of fun and everyone really enjoyed the experience; surprisingly everyone was still in high spirits even after their ascent to the top of Hartside. I was very impressed with the stamina shown by all across the three days; the team did really well in less than pleasant weather conditions to make it to Tynemouth.

Credit and Risk Manager, Andrew Ridley pulled the team of intrepid travellers together earlier this year, speaking of the challenge he said: “This was great opportunity to take on a sizeable physical challenge whilst raising some funds for the Foundation. Overall the weekend was a great success, by the end of the ride the group had a great sense of camaraderie and pride knowing that we had all cycled the 140 miles together and raised funds that we know will be used wisely by the Foundation.”

Not forgetting the point behind the cycle, Shared Interest Foundation Manager, Andrea Van Wagtendonk said: “I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the cyclists, the support team and their sponsors. The team of cyclists travelled from as far away as Nottingham and London to cycle the coast to coast on behalf of Shared Interest Foundation. This money will be put to good use, providing education and training to disadvantaged handcraft makers and farmers in the developing world, helping them trade their way out of poverty.”

Well done to all involved, I’m looking forward to discovering what the next fundraising challenge will be!

Coast 2 Coast Cycling Team

Coast 2 Coast Team

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Supporting fair trade buyers in the uk

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WE’VE RECENTLY PROVIDED CREDIT TO TWO VERY DIFFERENT UK BUSINESSES

TWIN, UK
Twin is one of the UK’s leading fair trade organisations. Twin, together with Oxfam, Traidcraft and Equal Exchange, set up Cafédirect in 1991. Since then it has helped to launch three more leading fair trade brands: Divine (chocolate), Oké (fruit) and Liberation (nuts). Twin’s approach is to build long term trading relationships with producers. It runs a Partnership Programme to build professional capacity in producer groups to become more effective businesses, it manages the supply chain to develop more direct relationships with farmers, and it develops fair trade brands which are part-owned by producer organisations.

In 2007 Twin took another radical step in its evolution by opening its membership to producer co‑operatives. As a result Twin’s membership includes 24 farmer cooperatives in eight countries, encompassing a network of over 1,000 co-ops, who represent more than 163,000 farmer families. There are an additional 13 individual members who bring wide experience in the world of business and development.

Twin has used Shared Interest’s services in the past but not in recent years. However we have just approved a new credit facility to help Twin as it develops new sales channels for its coffee farmers. In the last 12 months it has gained 10 new customers. While Twin always pays the producer organisations within a week of the invoice, its new customers take very much longer to settle. As coffee prices are currently exceptionally high Twin needs the support of Shared Interest (and other social lenders) to maintain its cash flow.

ZURI DESIGN, UK
Shared Interest is also committed to supporting small fair trade organisations, such as Zuri Design, a family business which imports and sells craft items directly from 11 producer groups in East Africa. Zuri Design started in 2004 with one person selling from a market stall. Today it has a warehouse, 30 wholesale customers and an online shop, but the founder still sells from a market stall when she can.

Although Zuri Design is small compared with organisations such as Twin, it has a very significant social impact on the producers it deals with. For example it is currently helping a bone craft workshop in the Kibera slum of Nairobi to install new equipment with a safe electricity supply. Zuri Design is also involved in community work in Kibera and plans to do more of this as sales increase.

Making Beaded Jewellery For Zuri Design

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Sad News

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It is with deep regret that we announce the sad news of the passing of Caroline Monda-Dartey on Friday 1st July 2011 in Nairobi.

Those who attended our recent AGM will have seen Monda and Caroline featured in one of the films that were screened.

She will be missed by all of us who had the privilege to meet and work with her. Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time.

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