Moringa Project

About ECO VITA

ECO VITA is a social venture in the Health and Wellness industry established in October 2008. ECO VITA utilizes its global network to provide unique and high quality products for those who desire a healthy lifestyle. Our motto, “True health comes from a healthy soul”, is reflected in our management, while we position the spirit of “living for sake of others” as the backbone. We actively seek to inspire our customers and contribute to the social good. We aim to become a brand that can convey our corporate culture to our stakeholders through our products. It is in this line of our mission that ECO VITA is an active participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

As a health food/product company, we believe that true health comes from a well-balanced unity of mind and body. We constantly seek and develop new health products from around the world to provide a better and more effective, wellness lifestyle for people suffering from illness, as well as for those who would like to maintain their health. We take pride in the safety and quality of our products, and offer accountability with honesty in the labels and product origins.

One of our major products comes from a tree called Moringa oleifera (Moringa), which has exceptional nutritious value and potential for multiple uses. Almost every part of the tree – the branches, leaves, flowers, nuts, seeds – could be used as food, medicine, fertilizer, livestock feed, water purification, or processed into consumer goods such as beauty products. Originated in India, Moringa is mostly grown in parts of Africa, Asia, and South America.

As a social venture, ECO VITA has partnered with the Shape Live Foundation, a NGO in Ghana, to be the supplier for Moringa. Shape Live Foundation employs women who are living in impoverished conditions at its Moringa farms. We have succeeded in processing Moringa into powder form in accordance with the highest sanitation standards by collaborating with a research institute and radiation center in Ghana. Importing Moringa in powder form instead of raw leaves is aimed to help add economic and brand value to the suppliers.

Challenges and drivers

Moringa Farm in Santrokofi (an ethnic group). Small community located in North Volta region with about 8000 people. The main economic activity people rely on is subsistence farming. Moringa was a new product brought to the community about 2 years ago. Until then, there was very little activity for women (way to make money for women). The women mainly worked on subsistence farming with their husbands. (Women were NOT the central players in farming.)

Moringa was a project started with the entire community involved. For example, men cleared the forest to plant Moringa, and women helped planting the trees. It is a community-owned project initiated by Alex. The NGO also offers the people in the community to weave hand-made baskets to earn income.

Why Moringa is good for women: because Moringa does not require heavy physical labor, it has the potential to help women gain income. (note: Statistics shows that women are more likely to use their income for the entire household, such as children’s education etc. than men)

Difficulties: Marketing and Partnership with ECO VITA

However, they encountered marketing difficulties for their product, which is where the partnership with ECO VITA came about. ECO VITA is the sole buyer of Moringa from the Shape Lives Foundation at the moment, and introduced the Moringa products coming from the small community to the international market. In global standard, there are many regulations involved such as product safety control, facility sanitation compliance and etc. Shape Lives Foundation hadn’t really developed the farm then to meet those international criteria. It was when we started a talk about exporting our Moringa product to international customers through ECO VITA.

In spite of those adversities ahead of us, Shape Lives Foundation and ECO VITA cleared every necessary steps one by one. At last, we could develop Moringa to the point that can be expanded to international market.

How the Moringa project works

The Moringa project allows autonomy and ownership to the women involved. The women formed their own organization, with a president and a secretary. About 10 women work together at a time and individually get marked for the shift they worked. They get paid as a group, and at the end of the month, the leaders of the groups distribute their pay according to how much work they put in.

Thus, the Morinaga project offers flexibility in terms of how much time the women chooses to work, which means they can also continues to give them time for farming and family.

Women and Financial Independence

Women are empowered with the income from Moringa to make financial decisions for the household. For example, they can use that income to buy more seeds or fertilizers to help their own farm or send their children to school.

Moringa also serves as a good source of income in-between seasons since farming does not provide income all year round. Specifically, there are no crops during the rainy season and dry season from December to February, and July to August is a season for harvesting maze, which is one of the main sources of income. Since Moringa is an evergreen, it is not affected by harvesting seasons, while maze takes all year in order to actually reap the financial benefits.

The orders for the Moringa powder came at a time that was one of the “gaps” in between harvesting maze, and gave an extra income to the families to invest in their future livelihoods. It also can become an economical safety net, if the harvest of maze and other major crops happens to be damaged that year.

The economic system in small rural communities usually does not use currency, but barter of goods. People set up a table-top shop for trading goods, a sort of a Kiosk (called Patytelling), on the roads in front of their houses and sell whatever goods they acquired. The women would take the money from selling Moringa to a larger supermarket outside of their village, and buy needed goods in the community such as fish or vegetables and bring them back to trade with other goods they want at their table top shops.

Changing Lives

The women feel pride in themselves for having their own income (not as a supporter to their husband’s farming) and decision making power on how to use what they earned.The positive effect trickles down to the children, as some mothers send their children to apprenticeships and vocational schools with their income from Moringa. Having job-training can dramatically change the children’s future. Alex says “women work more than men. They are vulnerable,” and that he is “happy someone is able to live to change.”

If anyone is interested in our project, please contact Tad Kumagai at kumagai@ecovitausa.com