We’re an agroforestry enterprise envisioning a world where forest ecosystems are more lucrative conserved than destroyed

Forested Foods partners with smallholder farmers - starting in Ethiopia - to sustainably grow, process, and market the most distinctive, premium forest-based products.

The driving force behind our vision has been the harmonization of forest conservation, agriculture production, and a more equitable world for forest-based communities. Aligning communities’ socio-economic incentives and forests’ ecological needs is the hardline key to sustainably deliver high quality products to our clients.

Why we do what we do

A broken world order that works neither in favour of people or the environment

Deforestation is an increasing issue, causes land degradation, soil erosion, polluted water, carbon emissions, and jeopardizes all life. Ethiopia in particular has 2-4% of its forests left. This is detrimental to Ethiopia’s 80MM+ farmers (80%+ of population) as it exacerbates the negative effects of climate change that affect their agricultural yields and ultimately, incomes.

Meanwhile, forests continue to be threatened by these farming communities, whose quicker gains of selling timber or clearing land for traditional agricultural outweigh opportunities to sustainably cultivate and market forest-based products. The problem persists due to insufficient coordination across sectors and stakeholders to protect/restore forests while ensuring sufficient social and economic incentives for all. These issues of deforestation and inequitable supply chains require new business models that build sustaining incentives that works in favour of people and the environment.

How we’ll get there

Linking farmers to markets for forest-based products

Our theory of change is that through 1) deploying holistic agroforestry practices focused on biodiversity with farmers on-the-ground, and 2) creating strategic market linkages for farmers’ forest-based products, we can then 1) increase the yields and quality of forest-based products we source, process, and market, and 2) pay farmers premiums for their improved product volumes and quality.

What we actually do

Building end-to-end supply chains of premium forest-based products

Forested Foods is a vertically integrated agroforestry venture. We’re working across the supply chain, from cultivation to aggregation to processing to packaging, and finally, marketing.

We partner with farmers living in forests to sustainably grow portfolios of forest-based products, like shade loving spices, fruits, forest-based honey, gums, and resins. Our warehousing and processing facilities are based near the forest so we can work more effectively with farmers and the community members we employ. Once we process products, we also create market linkages to individual customers, retailers, food service, and wholesalers. We create brands that tell the story of our products - where they come from, by whom and how they were cultivated, and their unique characteristics.