Empowering Women through Agriculture – A Business Born in Lockdown!
Earlier this year, Business Link Pacific opened applications to Business Adaptation Grants across eight Pacific Islands. Adaptation grants are funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia.
Over 200 businesses across the Pacific have benefitted from the Adaptation Grants to date, including Araru Farm Produce, an agricultural business that was born during the COVID-19 lockdown in Papua New Guinea this year.
Speaking from the Highlands in PNG, Sandina Arau Beirty of Arau Farm Produce explains to us why she and her husband George developed their new business, applied for the BLP Adaptation Grants and what they have planned for the future.
After being forced to shut down their local vegetable and fruit market business due to COVID-19 restrictions, Sandina tells us her business focus shifted from survival mode to adaptation.
“Arau Farms Produce was an idea born after our local Mt Hagen vegetable/fruit market closed down for over 10 months.
During this time, we saw an opportunity to adapt our business by working with the local community, especially women and young mothers by supplying them with seeds to grow fresh produce, which we then purchase to sell to consumers and other businesses like supermarkets, restaurants, catering companies etc,” says Sandina.
The primary focus of the start-up business is to provide local village women and families with new income sources after losing the ability to sell fresh produce through local markets like Mt Hangen.
Sandina explains to us that the BLP Adaptation Grant helped Arau Farms Produce go from an idea to a real-time body on the go.
This new business environment posed by the COVID-19 virus has been very frustrating and is making life very difficult for small villages and rural women farmers.
When we came across the BLP Adaptation Grant we had almost lost hope in our own business. However, with hard work and perseverance, we came through the funding rounds and received the BLP Adaptation grant, which has not only restored our hope but has also been able to provide hope to village women by issuing their “first-time experience” of being recipients of seedlings and fertilisers from Arau Farms,” says Sandina.
The BLP Adaptation Grant received by Arau Farm Produce is being used to help get the small business up and running after only recently being set up.
We will use the funding to mobilise village farmers, especially rural mothers who work hard but lack formal markets to sell their produce to.
We’ve purchased seedlings such as potatoes, cabbages, broccoli and fertilizer, which will be supplied to10 mothers who will grow the vegetables to sell to markets in the highlands.
In addition, we will also be using the funding to find formal markets in our Capital City Port Moresby and Lae to sell the produce from the Highland Provinces of Papua New Guinea,” adds Sandina.
Once formal markets are established for the business, Sandina plans to use the remaining funds to pay for fruit and vegetable carriage boxes and meet transport/freight costs.
When asked what their plans are for the future, Sandina says:
Arau Farm Produce in the future will be a “platform” where rural women who love to farm can rejoice that their hard work is converted to some meaningful income benefit.
It is our hope that we can improve the livelihoods of village women who are the economic managers and backbone of their family units.”
Expressing her gratitude to BLP and the New Zealand and Australian Governments for their funding assistance, Sandina also stresses the importance of reaching out for help as an SME.
It is about searching for opportunities and being open to business advice that will help you achieve your dreams. As long as you have a burning passion/dream to assist others and genuinely care for their improvement, then “help” comes,” she says.
We highly recommend BLP as a potential SME’s partner that can turn dreams into reality through funding, free online tools and wonderful local advisors in our country,” concludes Sandina.
ENDS
BLP’s Finance Facility enables access to capital for stabilisation, recovery and growth of viable but financially distressed Businesses in the Pacific Islands due to COVID-19 impact on the regional economy.
To further support recovery and growth, Business Link Pacific is negotiating key partnerships with Financial Institutions to offer concessionary lending to small businesses in the region and will soon make information available on accessing those products.
The Finance Facility also offers cured information about financial products for businesses on its free online tool, the Finance Finder; visit today to find out what is available to your business right now.
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