TropicalAlmond LLC

TropicalAlmond LLC seeks to improve lives and health especially in children. African countries  lose up to 16% of GDP due to malnutrition. In Ghana, 1 out of 7 children in the Upper West Region die from malnutrition. Surprisingly, there are many nutrient-dense trees in Ghana that can address the issue of malnutrition, one of which is the Tropical Almond tree. This tree is found in almost every home in Ghana, however, people do not know of the benefits of this tree and are cutting them down. We use technology to help us locate where these trees are, collect the nuts and use them in production of a nutrient dense instant cereal mix which we donate to children suffering from malnutrition. If scaled, by 2020, we will save over 2,000 tropical almond trees, create  200 jobs for marginalized people and donated over 1,000 instant cereal packs to  malnourished children.

Research undertaken by institutions such as the University of Alberta, has shown that nutrition is especially important to children and has a direct impact on how they perform school and outside activities. The lack of nutritious food has come at a huge cost for African nations, affecting not only human well-being but also economic progress and infrastructure development. For children, improved nutrition advances one of the most essential forms of infrastructure-- brainpower.

African nations still lag behind on achieving this, losing between 1.9% and 16% of the gross domestic product annually to under-nutrition due to increased mortality, absenteeism, chronic illnesses, and lost productivity.

This problem is evident Ghana. In the Northern region of the country, 1 out of 7 seven children die from malnutrition and in the Upper East and Upper West regions, 9 out of 10 children suffer from some sort of anemia. These children have a lesser chance of making great strides in life because this lack of nutrition impairs their intellectual performance, and brainpower as a whole. If out of the 20 children that enter primary school only 2 are able to attain higher education, then there is an apparent problem that needs our attention. 

To be able to fund the meal that we want to provide to children, we produce an all-natural Tropical Almond Oil targeted mainly at black women with ethnic hair.  Research conducted by Silent Spring Institute has shown that most cosmetic products used by black women, especially hair softeners, lead to diseases such as cancer. This has caused a natural hair movement with black women looking for natural hair products. With $54 million of the $63million spending in the ethnic hair market being made by black women and less than 25% of the products on this market being safe, there is a big untapped market.  Through surveys we have been able to understand the needs of our target customers and included their suggestions into the provision of this product. This oil has Magnesium that promotes healthy scalp and hair, thiamine that promotes hair growth and Linoleic Acid & Palmitic Acid that Moisturizes and Softens Hair.

The profit received from the oil is invested into transforming the byproduct into an instant cereal mix for children found in rural areas in Ghana suffering from malnutrition. This is a simple, just-add-water, tasty nutrient-dense meal that will help supplement the nutrition of children.

Ironically, in Ghana there are many nutrient-dense trees that can effectively address this issue of malnutrition, one of which is the tropical almond tree. The tropical almond contains more protein than chicken, more vitamin E than avocados, and more fiber than oats, making it an effective tool for fighting malnutrition. There are over 10,000 tropical almond trees across Ghana, but they mainly serve ornamental purposes.  People do not know of the benefits of the tropical almond, so they have started to cut them down. This is where TropicalAlmond enters.

We have built an application using AppSheet, which helps us to collect data on the exact location of tropical almond trees across Ghana, so that we can collect these nuts that would have otherwise gone to waste and use them in production. We have 8 Interns who travel around with their smartphones to pick coordinates of the trees, which are subsequently inputted directly into our map. Whilst doing this, they also hire marginalized people who live in the community where the tropical almond tree is found. These hired people agree to notify us when the trees fruits and ripen. They then collect the nuts that fall from the tree, crack them and we buy the final nut. We then cold press the seeds purchased from the locals and obtain a 100% tropical almond oil, that when used for the hair, provides great moisturizing and healing properties. 

We package this oil into our 4 oz bottles and sell them for $12 on the natural beauty market to women looking for a way to meet their hair care goals whiles avoiding harsh chemicals that have been associated with diseases such as asthma and cancer. We reinvest a portion of our gross profit into transforming the byproduct of the pressed seed into an instant mix cereal that we donate to children suffering from malnutrition in rural areas in Ghana. Our aim is to help give these children an opportunity to live healthy lives, excel in school and provide better lives for their families. Through our operation, we help address malnutrition in children, and provide safe and effective hair care oil for women. We also help promote sustainability and provide employment for the marginalized.  Our hope is to build a technology that will directly notify us on our map when a specific tree has fruited, rips and is ready to be collected.

The tropical almond tree is found almost everywhere in Ghana. It is grown in homes in Ghana to provide shade. Kids between the ages of 6 and 15 love this nuts. They will use rocks to crack open the hard seed coat to obtain the tasty kernels and eat. Although  very tasty and common in Ghana, it is still a very underutilized crop. We decided to research into the uses of the nuts and build a sustainable business model around it. We have identified and mapped out most of these trees in Ghana and buy the nuts from marginalized people who have been provided with this data to go round, collect seeds and sell to us. Never been done for this tree crop. We are building a safe beauty brand with the cold pressed oil from this nut, also never been done. We then use part of the profit obtained in selling this competitive oil to reprocess, package and donate tropical almond instant cereal, a tested cereal with good nutritional content, to school children in rural Africa suffering from malnutrition.

Most of the organizations trying to address malnutrition use other well know highly utilized crops such as peanuts. In our addressing of malnutrition, we are using a crop that is underutilized and often thought of to have no use. In addition, in addressing malnutrition, our solution also address other societal and environmental issues such as employment discrimination against the marginalized and food wastage.

Since the tropical almond value chain is a new one, there are no commercial farms growing tropical almonds in Ghana. This presents us with a great challenge:  every manufacturing business relies on its raw materials, thus building a reliable supply chain is essential . To be able to produce more of instant cereal for kids we need the byproduct produced when we produce the oil. To produce more oil we need more nuts

 Fortunately, there are abundant tropical almond trees in homes especially in rural communities. There are over 10,000 tropical almond trees across Ghana. We have built a supply chain with its engine being a mobile app. We built an App using AppSheet that helps us to collect data on the exact location of tropical almond trees across Ghana so that we can collect these nuts that would have otherwise gone to waste and use them in production. We have 8 Interns who go around with their smartphones to pick coordinates of the trees which are inputted directly unto our map. They also input landmarks for easy description,  and last fruiting season to give us an idea of when to expect to collect nuts. Whiles doing this, they also hire marginalized people who live in the community where the tropical almond tree is found. 

Long term outcomes are to provide free food supplement for malnourished kids. Researching and creating innovative and valuable product ( beauty oils to be sold and instant cereal reprocessed from cold pressing the kernels ) from the tropical almond was the first thing the company did. Next thing we did was to train our interns to go to villages to talk to locals of the opportunity of collecting the nuts they would have just swept away and rather sell to us to bring them money ( attract them to collect ) and also feed kids in their villages. When nuts have fruited the locals collect them to be sold to us. We are then able to process the nuts into a beauty oil to sell at a competitive price on the market. We set out a marketing campaign to inform people how our products are not only helping them, but also feeding kids in rural areas. Our profit margin on the oil allows us to roll out a -buy one feed one- project for the malnourished school children. We have donated more than 100 food supplement to children in rural school in New Longoro. The tropical almond nut is an already beloved nut among children,it being the most active ingredients in the snack make children love it more. Based on our projection, if provided with proper funding we should be able to donate more than 5000 tropical almond instant cereal to children in rural schools in the next year.

Through our recruitment program where we hire marginalized people to go around their neighborhood to collect tropical almond seeds that would have otherwise gone to waste, we are currently providing about 200 families income and a livelihood. They collect these fallen seeds and we buy it from them.  By 2020, we will hire about 1000 marginalized people and at least 6000 by the end of the 5th year.

When we get these seeds we cold pressed them and use the oil to make safe beauty products mostly targeting black women with ethnic hair. With the current research conducted by Silent Spring Institute revealing that 7 out of 10 of the cosmetic products marketed to and sold to black women containing toxic substances that are associated with diseases such as cancer and asthma, our all-natural products provide women with a way of meeting their beauty needs while staying healthy. We currently serve about 50 women in Ghana and the USA. By 2020, we aim to serve at least 1000 women and 5,000 in the next 5 years.

When we press the seeds and get the oil, we transform the by-product into an instant cereal that contain proven essential minerals and nutrients. With the instant cereal mix that we donate to children suffering from malnutrition, we are presently serving 23 children in a rural school in Ghana. By 2020, we project to serve at least 300 children in 3 schools, and at least 2,000 in 10 schools in 5 years.

At TropicalAlmond, we use technology to find Tropical almond trees that are at risk of being cut down, collect the seeds, processes it into safe and effective beauty products, whiles providing jobs for the marginalized(widow illiterate women, disabled), improving nutrition for children in rural areas in Ghana, and helping to mitigate climate change by saving tropical almond trees and planting more trees. 

Our goals are built on 6 of the sustainable development Goals.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger: Through the nutrient dense instant cereal mix that we donate,  we aim to serve more 300 hundred children in the next year and more than 2000 in the next 5 years. Our aim is to provide the nutrients needed to build brainpower.

Goal 3: Good health: We aim to sell at least 5,000 bottles of safe natural hair products to women for moisturizing their hair and  20,000 bottles in the next 5 years.

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth: We aim to provide another source of revenue for more than 1000 people in the next year and more than 5000 in the next 5 years.

Goal 13: Climate Action: We aim to start our own farm. We will grow 700 trees in the next year sequestering 135,000+ carbon and grow more than 4000 trees in the next 5 years sequestering 1million+ carbon.

Responsible Production and Consumption: We aim to save 2000 tropical almond trees which would have been cut down because it was of no economic value to people in Ghana.

Currently, the app we have only allows us to track where tropical almond trees are in Ghana. Interns would have to go out and find these trees and pin their locations. Because this tree fruits at different periods in different regions of Ghana, it is difficult to track when trees in a particular community have fruited. We currently just rely on locals in communities to call us and inform us whether the tropical almond trees have fruited . This isn't effective. Sometimes, by the time we find out the tree has harvested, most of the fruits have been lost. This reduces our access to raw materials  and limits us in reaching our goal 2 and 3.

Moreover, in order to be able to serve as much 2000 children in the next five years, we need to sell enough bottles of our beauty products. We need adequate demand to be able to do this. We currently do not have a large customer base.

In addition, In order to meet our goal 13, which is climate action, we would need to start our own tropical almond farm. However, we do not have the necessary funds to pursue this.

Another barrier that we face is the cracking of the shell of the tropical almond nut. Tropical almonds have one of the hardest shells to crack and we currently crack them manually using hammers. This process slows us down and if are to meet our sales targets, we would need to mechanize this process.

1. Inadequate Raw material

We aim to start our own tropical almond nucleus farm. We have spoken to community leaders who are ready to provide us with lands for cultivation at subsidized prices when ready. We aim to raise $10,000 dollars through grants to start an 18-acre plantation for tropical almond. 

2. Market to buy product 

We aim to attract some of the best minds to help us in brand creation. We presently have a Master of Marketing and a Global Logistics MasterCard scholar in our team. We aim to invest $2000 (we have raised $1000 in grants and are the other $1000 will be from sales in the next 6 months) in our marketing and brand creation and collaborate with natural hair social media influencers to market our product.

3. Tech for notifying nuts 

We are looking at collaborating and modifying a technology developed by Anshuman Das from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge US,and Akshat Wahi from WeSchool in Mumbai India, and colleagues, that is able to tell when apples are ripe. With this technology, we will be able to get notifications when the almonds are ripe. This will make it easier to pinpoint the exact tree to send our employees to collect the ripe nuts. We will be able to collect more nuts.

Cracking of the shells

Also, we have started designing a machine to crack the hard shell of the tropical almond. We are looking to raise $2000 for product development.

We currently have five full-time staff located both in the United States and in Ghana. Our full-time employees mainly perform managerial roles.

We have eight interns that go out into different cities and villages in Ghana, using our app to record the location of tropical almond trees.  Once they locate a tropical almond tree, and record its location, they are also responsible for hiring locals to help us collect the nuts that fall from the tropical almond trees in their community.

We have about 300 part-time employees who are marginalized locals that help us to collect the nuts that fall from the tropical almond trees in their neighborhood.

Freda Sarfo, Our Co-founder and CEO, has a masters degree in Global Logistics and serves as the Chairman of the Young Professionals Board at Project Cure, a non-profit organization that sends out donations of medical equipment and supplies to developing countries. She is skilled in project management, supply chain design, fund raising and sustainability for non-profit projects. She helped create a unique supply chain for our company.

Emmanuel Afoakwah, Our Co-founder and COO, has a degree in Agricultural Engineering. He has 2 years’ work experience as a Production and Quality Assurance manager for MoringaConnect.  Managing a factory in a rural area has given him skills in social entrepreneurship, food processing technology and quality assurance systems. He designed processing systems and steps for our oil and instant cereal mix. 

Madeline Handler, our marketing and brand manager, is a final year masters student at Thunderbird School of Global Management. She has experience in creating marketing strategies for small businesses and has interned with the Alchemist Lab social enterprise in Amman, Jordan giving her exposure to organizations like UNICEF and World Fair Trade Organization. Her unique experience across the world has helped her interact with different people to tell our story and put our story on different platforms.

We are partnering with MoringaConnect. Kwami Williams, The CEO of MoringaConnect( a company that is produces beauty products and foods from the moringa tree) has been mentoring us in setting up our processing units. Before we had our own processing machine, we used to press our seeds at the MoringaConnect Facility in Ghana. 

Customer Segment

1. Companies that use natural oils in their cosmetic products

2. Black women who are looking for safe and effective hair care products

3. Malnourished children

4. Marginalized workers in Ghana

5. Home owners and tenants that have tropical almond trees that sheds a lot of seeds.

Value Proposition

1.Cosmetic Companies- Effective oil proven to be better than other oils and offers competitive prices.

2. Black women- an all-natural hair care product that helps to moisturize and keep your hair healthy whiles making your health a priority.

3. Malnourished Children - all-natural nutrient dense mix you get for free. 

4. Marginalized persons- we provide you with an Income to fend for yourself and family.

5. home owners and tenants- we pick up tropical almond seed you have no use for.

 Channels

1. Face-to-face sales

2.  Company website (in progress of redevelopment)

3. Hair care salons and retail shops

Key Metrics

1. How many tropical almond trees have we saved?

2. How many jobs have we created for the marginalized?

3. How many products have we sold? How many of those are returning customers?

4.How many nutrient dense cereals have we donated to malnourished children? Has their health Improved? 

Our biggest cost structure is processing of the oil because most of our processing steps are done manually.

We receive 100% of our revenue from the sales of our beauty oil. We sell each bottle for $12. With a direct cost of $3.12, we earn a gross margin of $8.88.

Our main path for funding our company is the sales of our products. Currently, we have only one beauty oil that we produce and sell. We reinvest the profits into the sustaining of the company and the running of our donation program. We plan to add more products to our beauty line and in the long run also produce and sell snacks made from the tropical almond nuts.

We also consistently apply for grants. These grants also go into sustaining the company.

As a young business with a new supply chain and product, we are open to new ideas, resources and talent that can help us improve the various steps of our value chain. 

We believe Solve can provide us with various experts and the platform to tell the world about our products and story. We also believe solve can help us with evaluation and impact strategies to track our idea. Help us understand how we can make effective impact. 

Additionally, Solve can provide us with the funds to set up our own nucleus farm which be home to more than 4,000 trees, employ more than 100 people and feed more than 5,000 children. 

We would like to partner with the following institutions:

Project Peanut Butter : We would love to have a joint product to be donated to children in rural Africa. 

UN/FAO: Provide us with funding opportunities to grow more tropical almond and increase the consumption of tropical almond as a cheap source of protein for kids. 

Great Green Wall: Indulge in growing more tropical almond trees to help mitigate climate change.

Our source of raw materials, tropical almond trees, are located all over Ghana. Currently, we do not have any way of detecting whether a tree is ripe and ready for harvest. Because of this, we lose a lot of nuts. To improve our processes, we would love to implement AI to help us detect when a tree is ripe and ready for harvest. Using Artificial Neural Network for yield prediction based on image analysis would help us determine when trees are ready for harvest.

We will use this money to specifically buy nuts from women and girls in the rural areas who  are uneducated and are from poor homes. Most of these girls seem to be in poverty trap and are taken advantage of in villages. One of our workers who has inspired us greatly is Millicent Duah, a 18 year old girl with two children aged, 3 and 1. There is a tropical almond tree in their compound. Millicent was very excited about an opportunity to provide her with an income to take care of her children. She told us there are various girls in her town who are uneducated, have no lands to farm, and have no option than to rely on men for money. They are mostly are taken advantage of and left with kids to take care of. We give them the opportunity to collect nuts from already existing trees and earn incomes to start small businesses and take care of their everyday expenses. We will build a rigorous supply chain that will allow us to buy nuts from this women and young girls. Also, we will employ more women to crack the nuts obtained. Only women are employed to crack the nuts obtained.