Project Type: Open calls

Say ‘Cheers’, to social fruit juices!

Delight (U) Ltd.

Programme Coach
Jos Craemers
Company partner
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Profit and social engagement go hand in hand 

Delight (U) Ltd. is a private business that has been producing and selling fruit juices on the Ugandan market since 1996. Under the name ‘Cheers’, you’ll undoubtedly find their fresh juices in all local supermarkets. One to remember!  

The administrative centre of the company is in Kampala, but the actual corporate activity takes place in the Nwoya district in North Uganda.  

The presence of Delight in the region has a clear social and economic impact on the local society. Together with the Danish group aBi Trust, the juice producer is the driving force behind the establishment of the Nwoya Fruit Growers Cooperative Society. This is a cooperative that brings various groups of small farmers together in ‘grower groups’. Thanks to the establishment of the Growers Cooperative, the local farmers receive a fair price for their products. This is an important step forward in the fight against poverty. And it’s happening in an area that was ravaged by the Lord’s Resistance Army not long ago. 

Thanks to its social work for the North Ugandan region, Delight has been included in the prestigious list of ‘Companies to Inspire Africa 2019’. 

A big step towards self-sufficiency

In 2019, Delight began a collaboration with UDC, the government authority for agricultural development, for the construction of a new factory in the Nwoya district. The new factory will be an important move for Delight. Every step in the production chain will be included in the company’s own operations. Delight will cultivate and grow its own fruit, partly via a partnership with the Nwoya Fruit Growers Cooperative Society. Delight will be able to process the fruit into juice itself and take care of the distribution and sale of the juices on its own. In doing so, both Delight and the government hope to become more independent from neighbouring companies that currently control a great part of the market. 

Cooperative as a lifeline

To ensure sufficient supply of fruit to the factory, good coordination between Delight and the Nwoya Fruit Growers Cooperative is crucial. Exchange will act as a facilitator in this relationship. For example, we will set up a post-harvesting system in collaboration with the cooperative to get a correct estimate of the harvest. Furthermore, the Delight training center will be used to further train the cooperative and logistical issues will be dealt with. In this way, Delight can continue to live up to its reputation as a smart company. Where profit and social engagement go together.

What’s garbage for one is energy for another

Agruni

Programme Coach
Wouter Janssens
Expert Team
Anne Vandeputte
Company partner
Ecowerf Image result for icon link

The secret behind the clean streets of Kigali

Anyone who visits the Rwandan capital Kigali will be hard-pressed not to notice their immaculate streets. Through public tenders, the government selects private companies to ensure the cleanliness of the city. They pick up, collect and process industrial, domestic and street garbage throughout the city. Agruni is one such company, beginning their work in 2002. And today, Agruni is picking up at least three-quarters of the domestic and industrial garbage in Kigali. 

Waste gives agriculture an extra boost!

But it doesn't stop there. Agruni's main ambition is to focus on what happens after waste collection. Part of the non-organic waste is already being recovered and reused, but 80% of the waste collected is of an organic nature and nothing is being done with it at the moment. Agruni's future lies in valorising this organic waste. And what can a country where 90% of the population depend on agriculture make good use of? Correct: compost!

Expertise from the pioneering region Flanders

At Agruni, waste sorting is currently still done by hand on the Nduba dump site. Of course, the organic waste is already 'contaminated' by non-organic waste, making it difficult to make a solid compost from it. It has been proven that compost, provided the correct composition, increases the harvest significantly.

In this growth programme, Exchange will therefore mainly focus on the realization of usable compost on the basis of the collected organic waste. And let that be just one of the areas of expertise in which Flanders plays a pioneering role.

For example, we find a great deal of knowledge at the inter-municipal environmental company Ecowerf in East Brabant. For many years, Ecowerf has been responsible for waste prevention, waste collection and waste processing in 27 municipalities and cities. The company has also achieved a great deal in the domain of composting. Therefore, Exchange Coach Wouter Janssens, from Ecowerf, is extremely well placed to take on this role.

To further optimize the entire chain of operations, Exchange is also working with Agruni to see how current waste collection and transport can be organized even more efficiently.

Agruni and social innovation

Agruni is highly noted for its modern HRM policy and social commitments. Outside of the fact that half of the 1,800 employees are female, the company works with a savings fund. Vulnerable and sick employees are still guaranteed incomes. Plus, it offers a micro-financing formula to its own personnel. As a result, they can access loans that are more beneficial than those available through traditional channels. Agruni also supports a range of social projects every year, helping it to be recognised as an eminently sustainable company.  

The growth programme with Agruni has great potential: Mr Jean-Paul Shiraniro is a born entrepreneur with plenty of daring. Together with Exchange and Ecowerf, Agruni can ensure that Rwanda can further build on its image as a clean country. The great dream of recycling and valorizing all the collected waste remains. And where there’s a will (and a dream), there’s a way!  

ECOWERF
Ecowerf is an inter-municipal environmental company that is responsible for the waste policy of 27 municipalities and cities in East-Brabant, Belgium. Together with those cities and municipalities, Ecowerf is resolutely opting for a sustainable and integral waste policy, a policy that is innovative and plans for the future!
The ambition of the company is far-reaching: Ecowerf wants to be the absolute trendsetter in the field of waste management in Flanders. Limiting the environmental impact of their activities is more important than making a profit.