Inspired by nature, empowered by people". The motto of the Belgian group Envirium Life Sciences resonates with the one chosen for World Environment Day: #OnlyOneEarth. Launched just one year ago, the group has managed to gather over 30,000 farmers in Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Papua New Guinea. The goal is to produce sustainable and traceable high-quality cocoa, vanilla, coffee, chia, papain enzymes, spices and fruits.

Settled in Belgium, Envirium Life Sciences is present in Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar) and Oceania (Papua New Guinea). In just one year, our teams and our partners, the small holders, met many challenges and scored some great successes.

SUSTAINABILITY, TRACEABILITY AND HIGH-QUALITY SOURCING

Improving livelihoods by creating a fair value chain for all partners involved while protecting the environment and its biodiversity, that’s the philosophy of Envirium Life Sciences.

To achieve this goal, the group has decided to partner up with small holders and local communities, to train them to agricultural best practices, enabling them to reach higher quality and productivity on a long-term, sustainable basis. “Instead of buying land and employing farm workers, we chose to collaborate with thousands of small holder families. Through training and multi-cropping, they get much more out of their land, explains Christian Van Osselaer, co-CEO of Envirium Life Sciences.We can protect the environment, the rainforest, the national parks and at the same time, help local communities creating value from their land.” High-quality products as vanilla, coffee, cocoa and fruits fit customers specifications on the international market, enabling the small holders to get better revenues and afford a better life.

Full-traceability is also key in this model, as well as the development of a better sourcing for consumers: “On the vanilla market, for example, we wanted to contribute to develop that niche market. Envirium is the only industrial player in the world to be active in all three major production areas: Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and East Africa. When dealing with natural products, the security of the supply is key. We invest a lot in that direction and we hope the customers will positively react using more vanilla beans in their applications”, says Christian Van Osselaer.

7 SUBSIDIARIES, 4 COUNTRIES, 3 CONTINENTS

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 10,000 farmers are now involved with COPAK, producing cocoa, chia seeds and coffee. Originally based and active in North Kivu, the company is now also working with local communities around the Garamba National Park.

Virunga Enzymes, world leader in raw papain production, can now count on 15,000 small growers to produce and collect the latex at the foot of the Ruwenzori Mountains.

In Belgium, Virunga Origins is starting its activities this month, to distribute throughout Europe the products that are originating from the areas surrounding the Virunga National Park.

Our Virunga Chocolate, produced by the local communities established on the borders of the Virunga National Park, has met the expectations of Congolese consumers and is now available in Europe and the United States. The social enterprise established by the Virunga National Park, together with COPAK, The World We Want Foundation, the chocolatiers Dominique Persoone and Mathieu Brees has been able to reinvest profits into the conservation of the Park and the surrounding communities.

Madagascar

For more than 25 years, Sopral, based in Tamatave, has been a major transformer and conditioner of Malagasy products. In addition to green peppercorn and tropical fruits (pineapples and lychees) in cans and jars, Sopral has enlarged its portfolio to granadilla pulp (passion fruit) and hibiscus.

Vanilla planifolia, grown and harvested by farmers in small villages located in the North of the country, remains one of the major ingredients of Sopral’s success. An organic quality has been developed this year.

Biosucre, co-shared entity of Envirium continues to produce and export organic and Fairtrade sugar.

Papua New Guinea

Located in Madang, KAMAPIM Ltd. aims to become a world-class reference in vanilla, a reliable source of traceable and high-quality products for international companies. The company created a business model tailored for PNG local communities, based on preservation of traditional culture and the protection of large tracks of the primary rainforest.

On Earth Day 2022, 20 clans of Adelbert Range Mountain officially celebrated the protection of almost 10,000 hectares of their land thanks to conservation deeds. To preserve the rainforest from logging and mining, they decided to partner with Kamapim Ltd. in the sustainable production of high-quality vanilla.

This year, Kamapim Ltd, in partnership with Field Buzz and MiBank PNG, have been able to deliver microloans to farmers through mobile phones. This enables remote rural farmers to access finance directly where they live; breaking down barriers to financial inclusion.

FAIRTRADE AND CERTIFICATIONS

In Madagascar, the Vanilla Planifolia produced by SOPRAL, already certified organic in Europe, has granted the NOP Certification (US organic).

In the DRC, COPAK together with SYCOODEP (Synergie des Coopératives pour le Développement Paysan), have obtained the BIOSUISSE ORGANIC certification.

“Certifications are both a necessity and a reward, explains Christian Van Osselaer. Direct and end customers have an undeniable and obvious need to know how and where the food is produced, and to be sure that the supply chain respects the environment and the people. To get these certifications, companies must comply with very strict criteria. As a result, quality is enhanced. Envirium teams and farmers can be proud of these accomplishments”. COPAK has also recently been rewarded with the FairTrade certification. A label that Envirium Life Sciences wants to strictly apply: “This certification is an acknowledgement from the customers that they accept to pay a fair price to ensure families a more decent living from their hard work. As we already do in Madagascar, we want to be able to guarantee that this money goes to the farmers and that they can make the most of it. We support the local cooperatives to define which projects the additional money should be used for”, elaborates Dimitri Moreels, co-CEO of Envirium Life Sciences.

COPAK also joined DISCO (Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa) and Beyond Chocolate from IDH - The Sustainable Trade Initiative for their cocoa, coffee, and chia seeds produced in the Ruwenzori region (North Kivu).

SECOND YEAR CHALLENGES

Envirium Life Sciences’ main growth drivers for this second year will be the increase of the volumes of existing products, then the diversification of the products in areas where we are already working with our subsidiaries and local populations. In addition, we will diversify geographically, as we did with the Garamba Park in the DRC, for example and will do in the south of Madagascar as of July.

ENVIRIUM Life Sciences

Envirium Life Sciences is an international group based in Belgium and established on 3 continents through 7

subsidiaries. “Inspired by nature, empowered by people”, ELS aims at helping small farmers to create value

from their land. Based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, ELS’s business model provides

a sustainable, traceable and reliable sourcing as well as high-quality standards in the production of cocoa, chia,

coffee beans, enzymes (Democratic Republic of Congo), vanilla (Madagascar and Papua New Guinea), spices

and fruits (Madagascar). Almost 30 000 small farmers and their families have already chosen to embrace this

sustainable change. See more on https://www.envirium.be

Picture: @Virunga National Park