Fifteen years ago, Phil Hughes was serving in the Peace Corps when he got an idea. While working with communities in Uganda, he noticed piles of mangoes go to waste. Local farmers had a lot of delicious fresh fruit, but local markets did not have the demand. The farms had no access to external markets, which caused much fruit to go to waste. This inspired him to create a company that would eliminate that wasted fruit, create jobs and opportunities for local farmers, and offer delicious organic dried fruit to people worldwide.

The People

Mavuno Harvest works with small farms and create supply chains that were not there before.

These supply chains bring organic fruit from rural sub-Saharan Africa to the world. They practice sustainable agriculture and give those rural farmers economic opportunities they had never seen before. According to the MAvuno Harvest website, “Typically, farmers take their fresh fruit to local markets but only sell up to 30% of their harvest. The rest goes unsold and rots.” They work with these farmers to dry their fruit, thereby creating less waste and increasing shelf life in order to ship world wide.

The Process

Mavuno Harvest also were innovative in the process. “Drying fruit is a simple preservation technique which means no fruit is wasted and the farmers sell 100% of their harvest.” This not only helps the farmers, but creates jobs for their local communities. This helps lift a lot of these communities out of poverty and help the people adored healthcare and extend food supplies.

The Product – Mavuno Harvest

Mavuno Harvest haas just celebrated their 10th birthday and we at Organic Roots want to celebrate! Starting from his parents basement in 2011, While Hughes worked with Ugandan farmers he met in the Peace Corps to source three fruits. These were dried mango, dried pineapple and dried bananas. The sales were great, which led to more production, more warehouse space, and more employees.

Cut to 2020, when Mavuno Harvest was on the Philadelphia Business Journal‘s  list of fastest growing companies. Today, they offer a wide range of organic fruits, organic nuts, and innovative organic fruit bites that our customers love!

Stop by Organic Roots or shop online for a curbside pick up order and try a bag of delicious organic fruit from Mavuno Harvest. When you do, know that you are helping bring empowerment and economic freedom to rural farmers in Africa.