Finlays Horticulture have been working with small scale farmers in Kenya for over 20 years to buy premium vegetables (green beans, babycorn, sugar snap peas). Currently they buy from over 1000 farmers made up of individuals or farmers arranged into very small buying groups. Most farmers are farming land of approximately two to three acres.
In the M&S Plan A Awards Finlays Horticulture won the Supply Chain Award for their work in supporting small scale farmers and Fairtrade vegetable development. The M&S citation recognised that: “The support given by Finlays Horticulture to their outgrowers is a real success story and incredibly impressive. It’s a really complicated set up and many suppliers could give up when faced with such complexity. Through Finlays Horticulture’s dedicated support, many of their outgrowers have developed into successful businesses of their own.” We were also runners up in both the Leadership Award for our work on water efficiency and stewardship in the Naivasha area and in the Exceptional HR Award for the ETI supervisor training activities in Kenya.
Richard Fox, Sustainability Director for Finlays Horticulture Kenya was given a special award recognising his “outstanding personal contribution” to water stewardship around Lake Naivasha.
In the above photo:
Chris Gilbert-Wood, representing Finlays Horticulture and Richard Fox receive their awards at the Marks & Spencer Plan A Conference.
From left: Richard Gillies, M&S Director of Plan A and Sustainable Business; Chris Gilbert-Wood, Group Technical Director Finlays Horticulture Holdings; Wanja Michuki MBA, Principal Counselor Trade and Economic Affairs, Kenya High Commission; Richard Fox, Sustainability Director Kenya, Louise Nicholls, M&S Head of Responsible Trading for Food.
