After a visit to Mt Elgon, Kenya in 2004, Mike Robinson and his wife saw the need to help the people there provide for their families. Fruited Plains was established in 2005. By simply planting some fruit trees, which quickly turned into a sustainable maize project that assisted thousands of families in over-coming starvation.
"It is a beautiful place with fertile land yet the people are very poor," explains Mike. "We started Fruited Plains, Inc. in 2005 with the goal being to help the people of Mt. Elgon find ways to provide for their families. We have done a number of projects over the years and in 2016 we began to see that the best way to help the people of Mt. Elgon care for themselves and their families was through agribusiness. We knew that the farmers had no access to markets and they were not receiving fair prices from the brokers. Because Fruited Plains, Inc. is a non-profit organisation, our goal is to assist farmers rather than our own pocket books. In 2016, we introduced a high value crop: Passion Fruit, to the farmers. Fruited Plains, Inc. is licensed by Horticulture Crops Development, (HCD) where we are a certified nursery, grower and exporter of Purple Passion Fruit."
They are currently working with 220 farmers, who have all gone through Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) training. Some are Global GAP trained. There are an additional 1,000 farmers who have been trained and would like to grow crops. There is now 55 acres planted in total.
"The main product we are currently exporting is Purple Passion Fruit. We are also in the process of finding markets for potatoes, onions, cabbages and other vegetables that grow extremely well on Mt Elgon. Mt Elgon is one of the best places in all of Kenya to produce high quality crops due to the high altitude and fertile soil."
Fruited Plains are currently looking to extend their export markets and can deliver to the UAE, EU or UK. The main export products are purple passion fruit, onions, potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables.
For more information:
Mike RobisonFruited Plains, Inc
Kenya Cell: +254 724 516 878
Email: info@fruitedplains.org
Website: www.fruitedplains.org