Greenbox is a social enterprise and farm located 3,000 meters above sea level in the valley of Tarma. During her visit to our portfolio of social enterprises in Latin America, Co-CEO Nicole Etchart got the chance to hear from Greenbox CEO, Christian Perez.
Surrounded by crisp mountain air and fertile Andean valleys, this is where many exotic products flourish. The farm is the gateway to the Amazon highland jungle, where the company harvests many varieties of tropical fruits, such as camu camu, goldenberry, maca and lucuma. Despite this lush territory, many of the region's women face poverty as they attempt to raise their children on their own.
“Local banks are not interested in small and medium sized companies and those that are only provide high interest short term loans.”
What NESsT is doing with the Fund, [investing in the 'missing middle], is extremely important in Peru.
No one is doing this. No one wants to support small and medium sized companies, especially if they are working with vulnerable populations as is the case with Greenbox. The majority of our employees are low-income mothers who are raising their children on their own in the region of Tarma, which is a highly repressed part of the country.
Local banks are not interested in small and medium sized companies and those that are only provide high interest short term loans. This is exactly what we don't need. As for impact investors, we have difficulty finding loans at the sizes that we actually need.
The loan that NESsT provided to Greenbox is going to allow us to grow our business by expanding our B2B offerings and at the same time to get our retail side going since we know this is necessary if we are going to bring visibility to the brand.
“The Fund will allow us to increase the number of women we can employ in the processing plant as well as the women farmers that we can source from. ”
The Fund will allow us to increase the number of women we can employ in the processing plant as well as the women farmers that we can source from.
In the future, we want to continue to reinvest our profits into the wellbeing of our employees with benefits such as onsite daycare and other benefits and needed support identified by our team through the gender metrics work led by NESsT over the next few years.
"A few months ago, right when NESsT was going to approve the Greenbox loan, the company suffered a frost that ruined its goldenberry crop.
Rather than walk away, the Greenbox team increased their production and sales of dehydrated pineapple demonstrating that they were still in a financial situation to take the loan from NESsT. They have also worked hard to position themselves as a reliable and differentiated company that produces a high quality product in a very poor region of the country. Is it worth doing? The answer is a magnifying YES! Greenbox plans to triple the number of suppliers and employees to more than 500 in the next five years.
Does NESsT have a role to play? Through our Business Assistance Facility, we will assist Greenbox to increase its B2B sales overseas and also its retail sales both domestically and abroad, so that it can further establish its brand, and increase customers dedicated to healthy snack products.” — NESsT’s Co-CEO, Nicole Etchart.