How Coca‑Cola and African Mango Farmers Are Creating Shared Value

Sustainable Collaboration

As mango farmers with optimum growing conditions in Uganda faced production barriers and market challenges, The Coca‑Cola Company searched diligently to source local fruit to meet increasing consumer demand from the region’s burgeoning middle class.

Recognizing a shared need, nonprofit TechnoServe partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Coca‑Cola to launch Project Nurture. With an ambitious goal to double the average income of 50,000 small-scale mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya, and help them connect into the Coca‑Cola supply chain, Project Nurture seeded the potential for shared value.

With an ambitious goal to double the average income of 50,000 small-scale mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya, and help them connect into the Coca‑Cola supply chain, Project Nurture seeded the potential for shared value.
 

And, it produced.

Overcoming farming challenges through the introduction of new agricultural techniques and strengthening the local and regional value chain drove demand for locally grown fruit. For Coca‑Cola, this resulted in reduced costs, lead times and risks. Smallholder farmers, meanwhile, benefited from higher incomes. Farmers involved in the program increased their net revenue by 142 percent, and importantly, moved toward a life without poverty.