HortIMPACT partner Agrico awarded Ambassadors prize 2016

Agrico a potato seed company collaborating with SNV on the HortIMPACT programme has been awarded the Ambassadors’ Prize 2016. The award was announced during the Ambassadors’ Conference in The Hague, and is awarded every two years to the company that exports sustainably, or operates a company abroad, in the most outstanding way.

Agrico received this prize for a project in Kenya that aims at establishing a profitable potato chain for all stakeholders, including 12,500 small-scale farms. These local farmers have seen their yields increase fourfold or fivefold compared with previous figures thanks to growing high quality seed potatoes and good supervision. This boosts the Kenyan economy and enables these farmers and people in their surroundings to considerably improve their standard of living. Agrico thanked SNV for its support to this programme.

The SNV HortIMPACT programme which Agrico is involved with, combines private sector expertise with social impact solutions to build sustainable, inclusive domestic and export horticulture markets in Kenya. Poor food safety, high food losses, and the exclusion of small and medium size farmers from value chains are limiting the economic growth and social benefits of the fruit and vegetable market in Kenya. HortIMPACT is working with entrepreneurial small and medium size farmers, and Kenyan and Dutch Agri-businesses to change this by promoting innovative solutions and technologies from the private sector that improve production and help build inclusive market growth.

Agrico have also become Dutch finalists for the European awards for Entrepreneurship Promotion. You can read more on this in Dutch here.