L’ODA: My Business
Mining Haitian Gold
Business Overview:
L’Or Des Antilles (Gold of the Antilles) is a Haitian start-up enterprise specializing in apiculture and in honey production that is aiming to brand and market a line of Haitian agricultural products. Our primary products are, and are derived from, the natural products of the beehive (especially honey), but L’Or Des Antilles seeks to distribute a wider array of agricultural products. With much of Haiti’s agriculture industry in decline, L’Or Des Antilles has developed a way to “grow” pockets of these industries for the mutual benefit of local farmers as well as the company. By drawing together the integral connections between apiculture and agriculture, and by generously investing its own services (i.e. pollination) and profits into farming communities, L’Or Des Antilles hopes to grow sustainable industries, capable of greater yields of higher quality for a greater marketing potential.
L’Or Des Antilles is a for-profit enterprise, yet our main objectives as a business are rooted in social values. In all of our business endeavors, our true desire is to contribute to the development of sustainable agriculture in Haiti, which is the staple of the Haitian economy, and to the propagation of fruit-bearing trees and orchards in the current environmental crisis. In alignment with our mission & vision, our business is designed to grow through the strategic investment of at least 10% to 15%[1] of our profits to strengthen the industries that we purchase from. Via the Golden Pearl Investment Fund (GPIF), a branch of L’ODA that makes strategic external investments, we will offer exclusive grants and zero-interest loans to farmers, beekeepers & other business-minded individuals that we conduct business with to promote the growth and development of agribusiness in a way that also benefits the growth of our company.
L’Or Des Antilles is committed to more than its own prosperity. We are committed to the prosperity of the world that we operate in. Our business model is deeply rooted in socially responsible values that seek to lift up all those who we do business with for the greater common benefit. Our investment into the productive potential of those whom we do business with will simultaneously raise the productive potential of our own company. Also, the increasing quality of the agricultural crops will give L’Or Des Antilles more products that we can proudly put our label on and market around the world. L’Or Des Antilles has an extensive vision for growth, and we intend to grow with our partners. We have developed a business design that ensures this mutual growth. When L’Or Des Antilles prospers, so do its agricultural partners, so do the zones in which we work, and so do the people of Haiti.
[1] 15% is the goal for minimum agricultural re-investment. We sincerely hope to do much more. 10% is a precautionary a lower limit in case of difficult growth periods.
Why Apiculture?
It is scarcely known how much apiculture and agriculture depend on one another. It is estimated that more than 1/3rd of all of the world’s food crops depend on bees for adequate pollination.[1] Research has shown that a sufficient presence of bee colonies can improve crop yields by an average of about 30% for the average multi-crop farm, and up to 50, 100, and even beyond 1,000 percent for certain crops. Research has also shown that pollination can improve the quality, size, and flavor of many fruits and vegetables through the release of hormones produced by the fertile seeds.[2] Similarly, in order to yield a good honey crop, beekeepers need access to billions of nectar-filled flowers every year. A colony of bees must gather nectar from over 2 million flowers to make a single pound of honey,[3] and farmers provide much of this nourishment inadvertently by the nature of their trade. Without a doubt, bees need farms, & farms need bees.
In many developed nations, commercial farmers hire beekeepers to relocate bee colonies to their farms just as the flowers of their crops are beginning to bud. California, for example, known for producing over half of the world’s almonds, displaces more than 1 million bee colonies every season in order to succeed. In total, more than 2 million beehives take the road in the United States to meet the pollination demands of farmers around the country.[4]
Haiti is recognized for having the oldest beekeeping culture in the western hemisphere,[5] but sadly, Haitian-produced honey is now scarce due to the decline of the apicultural industry. More than 75% of Haiti’s bee colonies have disappeared since the 1980s, and USAID once reported that honey production in Haiti had become almost nonexistent.[6] In addition, Haiti’s feral bee colonies are in danger due to deforestation. Besides providing pasture for bees, trees provide the shelter and shade necessary for a colony to survive under the hot Haitian sun.
Not long ago, the Haitian people normally avoided cutting down fruit trees for fuel and lumber, but the value of fruit trees has also declined in the eyes of many, due in part to weak supporting industries that make the fruit profitable. Interestingly, we have also heard elder Haitians complain that the trees are less fruitful than before. Research still must prove this, but this is very possible, and it may have happened due to a decline of the bee population. In a similar vein,Apiculture Without Borders has scientifically proven that bees are essential to any reforestation project because bees intervene in up to 80% of the pollination process of trees and vital underbrush.[7] With such a strong influence on pollination, it is questionable whether the reforestation efforts can succeed without apicultural development as a precursor. Apiculture must be reinvigorated in order to recuperate what has already been lost.
If you would like to learn more about L’Or Des Antilles, please email me or snail mail me at the address under the “Connect w/Me” page.
[1] National Honey Board. (n.d.). The Story of Pollination. Retrieved February 2010, from Honey.com – The National Honey Board: http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/broch-pollination.pdf
[2] Free, J. B. (1993). Insect Pollination of Crops. San Diego: Academic Press Limited.
[3] The Honey Association. (n.d.). Honey and Cooking. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from Honey Association: http://www.honeyassociation.com/honeytrv.htm
[4] National Honey Board. (n.d.). The Story of Pollination.
[5] Sterk, B. (2010). Haiti Beekeeping Project. Bees For Development Journal (95), 10.
[6] USAID. (2009, July 15). Beekeeping Industry Reinvigorated In Haiti. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from U.S. Agency for International Development: http://www.usaid.gov/stories/haiti/cs_haiti_bee.pdf
[7] Haitian Resource Development Foundation. (n.d.). Advanced training Aquin beekeepers – Haitian Resource Development Foundation. Retrieved 2009, from Haitian Resource Development Foundation: http://pcrmedia.com/hrdf/?p=30
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