A cashew company in Bali focused on community development was just awarded the US Secretary State’s Award for Corporate Excellence for outstanding social impact by a small or medium enterprise.
Founder and CEO of East Bali Cashews, Aaron Fishman, accepted the award on March 1, 2016.
Cashew farmers had been sending their harvested nuts abroad for processing and then importing them back to Indonesia for a chunk of change. Fishman’s idea was to cut out the whole sending the cashews abroad thing so processing could happen in Bali and the money could be kept in the local community.
But he didn’t stop there. Fishman got help from an American investment company KKR that did pro-bono work to help the company on its marketing plan and find global investors.
East Bali Cashews now has over 350 employees in Bali, many of which were previously unemployed women. The company also built a preschool for its employees’ children and local farmers saw an increase in their salaries of 20 percent, Charles H. Rivkin, US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs wrote in a HuffPost blog.
And to add to all that, they also use sustainable processes and eco-friendly packaging.
“It has been our mission to enhance the lives of people within the Desa Ban community by creating a business that creates jobs where few had existed. We have been able to create a profitable business that empowers women through employment and education, helps farmers maximize their production, all while keeping the environment in mind,” Fishman said, as quoted by Business Wire.
We’d always seen these cashews around Bali with their cute packaging and appetizing flavors like ‘chili crunch’, ‘sea salt’, and ‘sesame ginger’, but had been passing them up because the price is kind of steep for those surviving on a gaji lokal. But now we know about where the money goes and the amazing community work this company has done, it seems worth the splurge.
Brb, heading over to Pepito to buy a bag of these cashews RN.
