{"id":281612,"date":"2019-07-15T09:31:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T13:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?guid=5695d34d426bda431033ed42c0e37e9e"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:57:31","slug":"greenpath-food-ethiopias-first-certified-organic-fruit-and-vegetable-producer-bets-on-smal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/281612","title":{"rendered":"GreenPath Food, Ethiopia\u2019s first certified organic fruit and vegetable producer, bets on smallholder farmers in Butajira"},"content":{"rendered":"

GreenPath Food, a horticulture start-up founded in 2015, is Ethiopia\u2019s first certified organic fruit and vegetable producer and works with more than 150 smallholder farmers around Butajira.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/figure>\n

An avocado tree in an Aari village in southern Ethiopia, July 2016 (Prof. Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

The company was founded by former staff of the government\u2019s Agricultural Transformation Agency, The Africa Report reported. Partner farmers grow for GreenPath on a third to half of their plots, across more than 80 hectares. In return the company trains them toward European Union organic certification, gives them credit for seeds and other inputs, and buys their produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cA huge proportion of the farmers already have what it takes to grow export-quality produce,\u201d said sales manager Ele Gower. \u201cThe issue is really the lack of links to global markets.\u201d Farmers in the area live an average of 44 kilometers from the nearest road.<\/p>\n

GreenPath has one staff member for every 25 farmers, and an agronomist visits each farm at least every three weeks. Demand around Butajira was so high that the company had temporarily stopped taking on new farmers.<\/p>\n

Avocado is the anchor crop, and most partner farmers switch to it from staples such as maize. Each farm grows at least four crops, which spreads the risk of bad markets and bad weather. \u201cThe big idea is to make the smallholder plot as productive as possible,\u201d said co-founder Jacie Jones. \u201cIntercropping makes the land more resilient to climate change and crop failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company is betting that Ethiopia\u2019s farming future lies with smallholders rather than large commercial farms. Commercial land deals have often angered communities whose plots were taken without adequate compensation, and intensive monocropping wears out the soil. \u201cSmallholder farmers are perfectly capable of producing very high-quality products without tearing up their hedgerows,\u201d Gower said.<\/p>\n

Organic premiums do not always reach farmers. A study of Ethiopia\u2019s organic and fairtrade coffee found that, on average, less than a third of the export premium was passed on to growers. GreenPath says its farmers earn on average 22 birr ($0.76) a kilogram, about twice what a non-partner farmer gets. Because much of their land is already organic by default, Jones said, certification can take months rather than the usual three years.<\/p>\n

GreenPath had recently closed a $2 million investment round. In May 2019 it opened a new site in Butajira with a packhouse, cold storage, a nursery and drying facilities, which it said would let it triple the number of partner farmers by 2020. It ships fresh fruit and vegetables to London, Amsterdam and Dubai, and herbal teas and botanical ingredients to Britain and the United States.<\/p>\n

Growth has limits. New land must be remote enough for smallholders to need the company but close enough to Addis Ababa for logistics. Regulations make it easier for big exporting farms to introduce new crop varieties, and commercial farms receive duty-free benefits based on their size. The company\u2019s long-term goal is a consumer brand. \u201cFruit and vegetable is the only fast-moving consumer good in supermarkets which is unbranded,\u201d Gower said.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> The Africa Report<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GreenPath Food, a horticulture start-up founded in 2015, is Ethiopia\u2019s first certified organic fruit and vegetable producer and works with more than 150 smallholder farmers around Butajira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7911,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/avocado-tree-aari-village-2016.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bg8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281612"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837638,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281612\/revisions\/837638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}