ORGANIC HERBS AND SPICES BUSINESS GROUP

Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Herbs and Spices Business Partnerships

Introduction

Organic agriculture has the potential to generate significant incomes for households, thus potentially uplifting smallholder-farming households from poverty cycles and food/nutrition insecurity. Access to markets, increasing profits and health considerations (farmers/their families) are among the key factors identified as driving smallholder organic production. However, not all farmers are effectively linked to markets. Farmers view the lack of/limited marketing opportunities as one of the crucial gaps in sustainable farming.

This led to the birth of Participatory market chain approach (PMCA). The objective of PMCA process is to involve all stakeholders within the agriculture value chain in the marketing process. Currently the farmers involved in this process are from Murang’a County as a pilot initiative which can later be adopted to other regions in Kenya.

1. Next Meeting and Agenda

The Herbs and Spices Business Group will have Knowledge exchange sessions between Farmers, Traders and Experts in various fields. To take part in the sessions take a look at the time table below:

	TOPIC	Sub Topic	Main Target Group	DATE
1.	Organic Production Knowledge	Soil Fertility and Inputs	Fruits For Export (Farmers)	03/05/2021
		Pest disease Control option and Inputs	Fruits For Export (Farmers)	05/05/2021
2.	Post-harvest processing and value addition	Drying processes	Herbs and Spices (Farmers)	10/05/2021
		Blending and packaging	Herbs and Spices (Farmers)	12/05/2021
3.	Organic Awareness / sensitization and Messaging(Communication)	Best practices in Organic Awareness Dissemination	Local Veg and Fruits (Farmers and Traders)	14/05/2021
4.	Trend and market analysis for herbs and spices		Herbs and Spices (Farmers)	17/05/2021
5.	Logistics planning, transport, and order fulfillment	Key considerations in developing a logistics system	Local Veg and Fruits (Farmers)	21/05/2021
6.	Pricing and premiums	1. Farm price setting process 2. Premiums Calculating premiums based on market profiles	Local Veg and Fruits (Farmers)	26/05/2021
7.	Business / enterprise management	Business Canvas Book Keeping	Local Veg and Fruits (Farmers)	31/05/2021
8.	Packaging and branding	Basic sorting and grading processes for Fresh Produce Steps to developing a Brand	Local Veg and Fruits (Farmers and Traders)	04/06/2021
9.	Certification Training	Standards Quality Management	Fruits For Export (Exporters / Processors and Farmers)	07/06/2021
		ICS Fraud	Fruits For Export (Exporters / Processors and Farmers)	09/06/2021
10.	Sales and Competition in the Global Market	Market drivers and what to look out for in market sourcing	Fruits For Export (Exporters / Processors)	11/06/2021