Imagine if there was a crop that could take millions of farmers out of poverty, and at the same time transform the health of consumers worldwide. Imagine if there was a staple food that wasn't only delicious, but nutritious as well. Thailand was the world’s no. 1 rice exporter, what many people don’t know is that our farmers are amongst the poorest in the world, earning just $0.40/day, 6 times below the poverty line. This is affecting 17 million farmers in Thailand or 25% of the entire population.
Over 1/3 of the world or 3.5 billion people, rely on rice as a staple food. While rice provides basic energy for people, it's also one of the biggest causes of diabetes with close to zero nutritional value. We worked with a rice scientist in Thailand, who has been doing rice researches for over 30 years, and came up with a new variety of rice, Jasberry rice, with has over 40 times higher antioxidants than brown rice and 4 times higher antioxidants than quinoa with many other important vitamins and minerals. It has been called the "Superfood rice" or the "World's first common superfood" since it's not only healthy but also affordable. It crucially retains the soft & delicious texture of the Jasmine rice which makes it easy to consume. What's more it's non-GMO and organic, making it friendly for the farmers who grow it and also sustainable for the environment. We started in 2011 working with just 25 farmers' families, now we work with over 2,500 farmers' families. We worked throughout the entire value chain from providing the farmers with Jasberry rice seed to training them on how to grow it to what inputs to use to processing and marketing the product domestically and internationally. As a result, the farmers have seen over 40% increase in yields, 25% reduction in costs and most importantly they have been able to increase their income from just $0.40/day to $5.80/day, an increase of over 14 times. Jasberry rice is now available in not only Thailand, but also the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the US, Germany, Austria, Italy and NZ. Millions of consumers around the world now, has an access for the first time to a staple food that's not only delicious, but nutritious as well. Most importantly, they will have a direct hand in helping small-scale farmers out of poverty.
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