Tuesday, August 23, 2011 — The Good Times
Stemming World Hunger
Karuturi Global is a genuine change agent, committed to sustainability. Its stated mission is: “To emerge as an integrated agri-products company servicing the world market through unmatched product, cost and quality advantages.” Today Karuturi Global is a large producer of cut roses, with an 8% share of the floriculture market. The company has businesses in Ethiopia, Kenya and India, producing around 555 million cut roses per year.
However Karuturi Global is now taking up agribusiness as its next ambition. It wishes to be recognized as a genuine change agent for global growth, prosperity, and cultural and economic transformation – to do whatever it can to help alleviate worldwide and African food shortages. Thus Karuturi was among the first foreign firms to acquire land from the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments – more than 300,000 hectares – to grow and produce maize, vegetables, grains, corn, palm oil, and sugarcane.
In Ethiopia, Karuturi Global’s social welfare contributions have included distributing wool blankets to the poor and elderly in 2007 and 2008, contributing $75,000 towards the drinking water supply in Holetta and providing free food every week for two years to 100 needy people.
In Kenya, the company has provided healthcare services to locals, food to drought victims and infrastructure to the local police. Karuturi Global affirms that, “Our labour welfare measures in Kenya are having a positive impact on the lives of our Kenyan workers, their families and communities. Taking cue from the success of these measures, we are working on implementing the same in Ethiopia. We plan to provide schools, hospitals, housing and bus facilities to our workers in Ethiopia, along with our social welfare initiatives.”
Karuturi also applies eco-friendly policies in its production chain, including using indigenous greenhouses, in-house power generation from biomass, rainwater harvesting, and environment-friendly fertilizers and chemicals.
According to Karuturi Global, “Every small change counts. … We do our utmost to conserve the environment and to ensure that our people and our communities grow with us.”
