SDG Partnership Facility: a valuable next step after having participated in a CBI programme
An Indonesian and a Philippine organic food company have been awarded a grant from the SDG Partnership facility (SDGP), after having participated in an export coaching programme of the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI). A good example of how international development programmes, executed by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, can be complementary to each other.
Aliet Green (Indonesia) and Treelife (The Philippines), both organic product suppliers, participated from 2013 to 2017 in a CBI export coaching programme for food ingredients, in an effort to launch its presence onto the European market. In December 2018 both companies were part of a consortium that submitted a project proposal for SDGP which turned out to be successful.
Aliet Green
Aliet Green is a social enterprise which goal is to develop and introduce potential, innovative and specialty products from small producers to the world. CBI provided Aliet Green with expert guidance on exporting their unique high quality organic coconut sugar products to the EU. CBI also gave training on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has helped the company to make necessary improvements in workplace health and safety for their predominantly female employees.
These improvements have allowed Aliet Green to upgrade quality standards necessary to meet EU buyer and market access requirements and implement an Internal Control System for Organic Certification, supporting over 1,000 farmers. These achievements will be beneficial during their participation in the selected SDGP project Sugar and Steam – Sustainable Intensification of Agro-Forestry Production Systems. In this project they partnered with knowledge institute Van Hall Larenstein, Aidenvironment (NGO) and the local department of Forestry and Plantation. The purpose of the project is to improve the incomes, productivity and climate resilience of over 2,000 farmers (of which 60% are female) in Indonesia’s Kulon Progo District, through value chain integration and the introduction of suitable on-farm practices and technologies.
Treelife
The company Treelife is located in the Southern Philippine Province of Cotabato and has its own plantations combined with over 800 contracted smallholder farmers. Thanks to the CBI programme, the company has been able to exponentially increase exports due to linking product innovations (coconut wine), to the increasing demand for high quality organic coconut derivatives.
Treelife has been very successful at trade fairs. During their third participation at Biofach, the world's leading trade fair for organic food, TreeLife introduced their new banana chips products which is increasingly demanded in the EU. Moreover, it applied successfully for financial support with SDGP. Their project Going Bananas - Restoring Livelihoods of Conflict Affected Farmers in Cotabato, in which Treelife cooperates with Aidenvironment, aims to contribute to peace and sustainable economic development by restoration of agriculture based livelihoods for over 12,000 farmer households in Carmen, North Cotabato.
Sustainable Development Goals
Through SDGP, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2 (ending hunger), 8 (decent jobs and economic growth) and 17 (partnerships for the goals) in developing countries. These are key goals which cannot be solved by one party. That is why the SDGP works with partnerships between government, businesses, NGOs and/or knowledge centers. Combining the expertise of these parties is essential for finding innovative solutions to complex challenges.
CBI contributes to SDG 8 through the expansion of exports from developing countries and supports on a yearly basis around 800 entrepreneurs to become successful exporters on the European market through export coaching projects. CBI not only aims to improve exports in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality. Corporate Social Responsibility is a starting point for all activities. As a result, companies have a good understanding of the developments and issues in the sector and have expanded their network. This helps ensure that these companies are well prepared to take part in international public-private partnerships, like the SDG Partnership facility.
More information about our programmes and projects can be found on our aid data website https://aiddata.rvo.nl/