Cookshop Market Spotlight: J-Palm Liberia
Meet Mahmud Johnson, the founder of J-Palm Liberia, a social business that turns previously wasted palm kernels into organic beauty products.
In 2013, Mahmud created J-Palm Liberia with a mission: to make premium consumer goods while creating income-earning opportunities for Liberians through sustainable oil palm production. Oil palm trees grow naturally throughout West Africa, and yet 90% of smallholder oil palm producers in Liberia lived on less than $1.25 a day. Mahmud learned this was mainly because inefficient production methods resulted in 35% of palm fruit going unharvested yearly, and a 50% lower oil yield than possible. He also noted that farmers were discarding 98% of the palm kernels in the process.
In response, J-Palm manages and operates mini oil palm mills in partnership with rural communities, reducing processing time by 90% and increase extraction rates by 50%, and in return farmers pay J-Palm 10% of the oils produced. J-Palm then purchases the palm kernels from the farmers, and processes them into oil to create a range of beauty products. As a result, over 500 smallholder farmers have seen their incomes increase by up to 264%.
Cookshop Market ( Cookshop.biz/market ) allows social businesses like J-Palm to increase their impact in our communities. We serve your usual grocery shopping and delivery needs with a focus on products from local agropreneurs like Mahmud who are creating sustainable markets for rural farmers.