Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the vast Sahel region in West Africa. Its name means “Land of the honest men” in the main local language. Agriculture employs 80% of the active population and one of their main crops is tiger nuts.

Traditionally, tiger nuts have been grown by women while men usually work growing cotton and other crops. Farmers sell sporadically small parts of their harvest, as they need money to cover household expenses. This way of working has several problems: price variation, unstable supply, mixed batches and variations in quality.

We have made an effort to form partnerships directly with farmers and establishing long-term relationships based in trust and transparency. Currently, our fair trade project brings together 7 associations of small producers in the villages of Mahon, Cilabougou, Niempédougou, Bama, Wolokoto, Kagnabougou and Sayaga.

This way farmers work together and are in a better position to negotiate terms and prices.

We train farmers on new organic techniques which help them increase their production and reduce costs by efficiently employing their resources.

We work together with our well-known local partner EZISAF that is our liaison with the farmers and is in charge of logistics tasks and initial cleaning and sorting of the goods. Our agricultural engineer, who is onsite during the whole harvesting period, does the first the quality control and helps introduce new processing techniques.

We supervise all production sites making sure farmers follow organic practices and ensure traceability. We are present in every step of the harvesting process to support and assist in obtaining the highest quality tiger nuts.

A fair trade premium is payed for every kg purchased to help improve the farmers living conditions. In 2020, the fair trade fund was employed to buy school kits for 200 children, 40 new school benches and first aid kits. In 2021, 20 hospital beds and 210 school fees have been purchased.

Fair for Life certification is a third-party certification process that monitors our commitment to social accountability and fair trade. For us, this means being honest in our practices and doing business in a sustainable way.