Safety you can count on!

Every step in our vertically integrated supply chain is traceable. Pre-drying, drying, cutting, sieving, roasting – all this is done gently by well-trained workers under controlled conditions. An independent lab monitors and analyzes our yerba mate to rigorous safety standards.

Sustainability you can contribute to!

We are committed to sustainable sourcing and engaging directly with the populace to help communities thrive and embrace sustainable mate production practices. This goes to boost productivity and local income while protecting Mata Atlântica, a designated UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Benefit from our perfectly balanced mate varieties

Get inspired by the endless opportunities yerba mate has to offer and branch out your business by adding this trending treat to your portfolio.

For more information, feel free to contact us: sales@martin-bauer.com

Der Beitrag Energize your business with yerba mate erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

Less to worry about
Ethibar Egemberdieva from the village of Arstanbap-Ata in southern Kyrgyzstan looks over her package of cleaning and hygiene items with satisfaction: solid and liquid hand soap, disinfectant, masks, gloves, laundry detergent, scouring powder, dish soap, floor cleaner and more. “We have eleven people in my house,” says Ethibar. “So it all goes to good use, especially now, during the pandemic.”

Dilnaz Nazarova from the village of Nichke-Sai was pleasantly surprised by the high quality and variety of the cleaning and hygiene items: “It’s important for me to know I don’t have to worry about this, at least for a bit,” she says. Kholida Chokonbaeva from the same village was particularly pleased with the laundry detergent and liquid hand soap. “We’ve actually never used liquid hand soap before, and the detergent we usually buy never smells so good,” she smiles.

The three women are part of the wild collection community in Kyrgyzstan that provides Martin Bauer with wild apples. These workers are the first link in our value chain, and therefore of decisive importance.

Fertile forests secure livelihoods
The Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, part of the Soviet Union until 1991, is a mountainous country. Ninety percent of it is more than 1,500 meters above sea level. Mighty and rugged peaks up to 7,000 meters tall loom over deep valleys. Just four percent of the country is covered in forest, but those forests boast remarkable biodiversity. For centuries, local people have lived from the walnuts, wild apples, juniper and mushrooms that grow here. Today, at a time when many people in the country are unemployed, these wild plants enable rural populations to secure their livelihood.

The national forestry department leases plots of between three and seven hectares to families, who are permitted to harvest the forest fruits, but not to use the wood. When the fruits ripen, the families take their tents and supplies into the forest and cut a trail through the undergrowth with horses or donkeys, as there are no established roads or paths.

The pandemic hits Kyrgyzstan
This small country was not spared from the rapid spread of the coronavirus. In summer 2020 a massive wave of infection hit. In a country of 6.5 million there are only an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 hospital beds. There is a serious shortage of physicians, and to cap it off, for a while Kyrgyzstan had one of the highest rate of infection among medical personnel in the world, and the highest Covid-19 mortality rate. As many Kyrgyz people have no real possibility of receiving assistance in hospitals, they have been trying to help themselves. They have been very resourceful and have been able to count on an excellent support system of volunteers, who shared useful information on social networks, set up an online medical advice service, and provided the poorest sections of the population with essentials.

Help! Lockdown during collecting season
Many people here live like Ethibar and her family – a large household in a small space, where money is tight. In an attempt to control the pandemic, the government imposed movement restrictions, as happened in many countries around the world. This came at the worst possible time for the collectors in Kyrgyzstan – precisely when they would normally be collecting wild apples and walnuts in order to sell them and earn crucial income. When we asked our supply partners in Kyrgyzstan what the people on the ground needed most of all, the reply was: “Please send cleaning and hygiene items.” These items had become much more expensive during the pandemic, and yet the local shops and markets still often ran out.

In partnership with Pukka and Mercy Corps
Our customer Pukka lent financial support to our Covid-19 response measures, and the packages were organized and delivered by Mercy Corps, an international NGO working in Kyrgyzstan. Delivering packages to 223 families also gave Mercy Corps the opportunity to provide the communities with information about the coronavirus, its global progression, and how they could effectively protect themselves and their families.

Thank you!
Dilnaz Nazarova has five children, and was delighted with her family’s package: “Every month I buy about C1,000 [USD 15] worth of cleaning supplies of medium quality. The amount we received is sufficient for several months. For example, this laundry detergent will last about six months – even for laundry for five kids! We really appreciate this assistance, and wish Mercy Corps, Pukka and the Martin Bauer Group prosperity and wellbeing.” Kholida Chokonbaeva, from the same village, added: “Thank you very much for taking such good care of us!”

Related Topics

Bee confident 

In good health

How the Martin Bauer Group is helping in the face of Covid-19

Der Beitrag Hygiene packages gratefully received erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

For us, quality and sustainability belong together. We want our business practices to be good for nature, people, and society. Within the next months we introduce you to some of our our favorite crops and provide some information about how they are sourced. Today´s main actor: Hibiscus

The principle of knowledge (Hibiscus)

When we sow sustainable ideas, we reap a future where people can grow in harmony with those ideas.

Our two demonstration farms in Zimbabwe are colorful, diverse worlds. Rows of dark-green thyme line up next to orange marigold, light-green fennel, and more. The expansive farms are divided into many different lots to test how various crops and varieties cope with the climate and the soil, and to learn which sustainable cultivation methods lead to successful growth and good harvests.

The farms are not just production sites, they are also training centers for farm workers, smallholders, and wild plant collectors. In a joint venture between Martin Bauer and our supply partner Organic Africa Holdings (OAH), local people are learning the basics of sustainable agriculture and wild collection by observing the methods and then trying them out for themselves. The training schedule is adapted to the needs of local farmers, and most of the instruction takes place out on the fields. These intensive training courses teach modern approaches to seed selection, nutrient supply, soil tilling, crop protection, harvesting, plant processing, and crop rotation. At the end of each training course, the participants know how to improve soil fertility and grow maize, squash and other foods for their own use. This allows them to reliably feed their families, which have an average of seven members, whatever the weather throws at them.

The training participants include 184 selected smallholders who play a key role in the transfer of knowledge as “contact farmers.” Working in tandem with a field officer from OAH, they subsequently instruct as many as 30 smallholders from their communities, passing on the knowledge and skills they have learned in a kind of “field school.” This has allowed 3,627 smallholders within a radius of 30 kilometers around each farm to learn the training content. But that is not our only innovation in Zimbabwe. For a long time, cotton was the only source of income for smallholders in this region, but we have now given farming families the option of growing hibiscus as an additional cash crop. Hibiscus is robust, can thrive on little water, and produces a reliable harvest without the need for synthetic pesticides. The families’ initial skepticism has faded, and they are now convinced by sustainable cultivation methods. The demonstration farms and field schools have made the benefits evident and tangible. Better yields, a secure income, and the sustainable use of natural resources have improved their perspectives and their quality of life.

Want to learn more about our sustainability commitment?

Related Topic:

Our Senna Small Farmers in Rajasthan

In good health: The HANA initiative in Egypt 

Sustainability: Supply chain  

Der Beitrag Hibiscus: Tangible benefits erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

However, there are two types that have stood out amongst the rest due to their use in traditional medicine: German chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) and Roman chamomile (Chamomilum nobile). In this blog, we are talking about German chamomile – a favorite amongst many consumers because it makes a better tasting cup of tea.

Chamomile is native to Europe and West Africa and since ancient times, it has been highly valued by Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks for its medicinal properties – so much so that it was worthy enough to offer it to their gods. They regularly used the chamomile flowers to treat skin conditions caused by dry weather and as a calming beverage in the form of tea or tisane.* Today, chamomile is still valued for its personal care and calming benefits, but now it is being cultivated commercially in many countries. Martin Bauer’s supply chain, alone, spans 4 continents. Literally, chamomile is blossoming all around the world.

Chamomile has come a long way since ancient times and not just in terms of cultivation areas, but harvest methods too. Unsurprisingly, the first method of harvesting was hand harvesting. Finger picking, the most labor intensive harvest method, is only carried out on small stocks in most countries except in Egypt, where it is used almost exclusively. The picking rate of freshly harvested short-stemmed chamomile flowers is about 3-5 kg per hour. Somewhat higher picking yields were then achieved with so-called chamomile picking combs. They were used for harvesting cultivated fields in Hungary until the 1970s and are still used today for organized harvesting in wild populations. The picking rate of fresh flowers is about 50-150 kg per day. Throughout history, other methods included the use of special rakes or the comb shovels used in Hungary, which were swung through the chamomile stand like a scythe. Ultimately, such manual methods were not feasible for the production of large quantities. This was primarily due to the labor time requirements of about 25-30 working days per hectare. This problem had to be solved by the construction of mechanized harvesters.

Today, large scale commercial cultivation of chamomile in Germany and abroad uses chamomile picking machines, which pick the flower heads in the fields automatically and mechanically as a self-propelled machine, as a front carrier machine, or as a full harvester. These mechanical harvesting methods have a picking rate of 200-400 kg per hour and an area output of about 3.5 ha per day. These modern methods capture about 65-90% of all flowers, depending on climate and stand-specific conditions.

^*American Botanical Council

Der Beitrag Chamomile: Blossoming Around the World erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

For us, quality and sustainability belong together. We want our business practices to be good for nature, people, and society. Not only do we set the highest standards for our product quality, we are also careful with the natural resources we use. We are committed to biodiversity and more sustainable practices, and the diversity of our products reflects that. Here, we introduce you to some of our favorite crops and provide some information about how they are sourced. Today´s main actor: Linden blossom

The principle of fairness (Linden blossom)

Martin Bauer’s wild collectors live in close harmony with nature. In the beautiful, remote places they call home, profound knowledge about plants is a tradition that has been preserved for centuries and is passed on from one generation to the next. We respect the way of life of these people, value their wisdom, and strive to ensure healthy working conditions and fair pay.

Bulgaria’s Danube plain in early summer. Rays of sunshine warm the rustling pale-green leaves of the silver linden. The trees are full of sap, giving off a delicate scent that connoisseurs can recognize from a distance of 200 meters. It is a fine, elegant fragrance with a fresh, green nose and a hint of honey. The brief period of two to four weeks has begun during which the yellowish-white linden blossoms can be harvested. Their delicate flavor enhances the taste of various herbal teas. Linden blossoms are also one of the best-known herbal remedies – they have a diaphoretic, relaxing effect and can calm the stomach.

The linden’s enchanting scent attracts many winged visitors. The lush blossoms this late in the season make the linden a valuable feeding ground for bees and one of the last foraging sources. Linden blossoms are rich in nectar. The easily digestible sugar solution is a great source of energy to help the insects on their long, debilitating flights. Bumblebees use linden pollen to nurture their new queens, who are the only ones to survive the winter. Come spring, the young queens are responsible for creating new colonies.

How do collectors tackle a towering tree, buzzing with bees, whose blossoms are 20 to 30 meters off the ground? The answer is – cautiously! No tree is quite like the next, and the age, height and shape of each one determines how it should be climbed. In Bulgaria, experienced linden blossom collectors pass their knowledge on to the next generation. It is also traditional to climb without a safety rope, but we believe that even with a great store of knowledge, that’s too risky.

To better protect our wild collectors from accidents, we have provided them with professional climbing equipment. We also commissioned experienced mountain climbers from Sofia to share their knowledge and provide practical training in the use of ropes and belts. Under their guidance, the collectors learned how to identify safe anchor points, to position throw lines in a tree, to climb up single ropes, and to move safely around tall trees. Although it takes time for the new technique to become second nature, the collectors learned quickly. And that’s hardly surprising, as an innate understanding of trees is the most important prerequisite for becoming a skilled tree climber and blossom collector.

Want to knwo more about our sustainability commitment?

Related topics:

Licorice root: A well-deserved break for a multi-talented plant 

Bee confident 

Sustainability

Der Beitrag Linden blossom: Lofty blossoms erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

In the San Pedro region of Paraguay, Martin Bauer is helping smallholders and wild collectors to improve the quality of their products and their own productivity – guided by the sustainable sourcing standard mabagrown. As part of the approach, wild collectors and smallholders learn valuable information within hands-on projects that help them unlock their potential – allowing them to support themselves and their communities and to become more resilient.

From vulnerable to resilient

Ignacio (35) lives in Unión with his wife Benita (32) and their children Erme (14), Junior (13), and Maria (4). Ignacio’s parents are smallholders, and he often helps them out. For the past five years he has also been working as a traditional wild collector. The family relies on orange and lemon peel for their income, which is based on the volume and quality of the peel collected. Due to the seasonal nature of Ignacio’s earnings, he and his family are vulnerable to uncontrollable events like bad weather and a poor harvest.
Low income and high unemployment in rural areas is causing other families to cross the border into Argentina for seasonal agricultural work. As foreign, migrant workers, they often experience compromises to their civil rights and personal dignity. To help overcome these challenges, our project explored ways of stabilizing the household income of Ignacio’s family and 104 other families in the region in order to build up their resilience.

The idea of honey production as an additional source of income actually came from the very people participating in our project. Honey is a popular food in the region of San Pedro. But there were a few obstacles to overcome first.

Ignacio: “Initially, I was not confident about keeping bees as I knew very little about it and lacked the necessary equipment. Following the weekly training sessions and having received strong support from the project team, I can now not only keep bees throughout the year and harvest honey up to four times, I’m also able to catch a swarm of wild bees and prepare my own hive for them.”

A strong leadership group

Ignacio has now progressed from learner to dedicated trainer for other families in the project. He also enthusiastically promotes the project to neighbors and friends, who have starting gaining an interest. With his newly acquired knowledge and confidence, he can play an active role in his community.

Over a period of nine months, the project formed a strong leadership group including Ignacio and 15 other men and women. This is a group of active community leaders who are seriously committed to positive change. They have not only successfully promoted the bee project, greatly enhancing its impact, they have also facilitated further discussion and have helped tackle community issues.

Ignacio: “In the beginning, some people smirked at the participants in the bee project because communities here have seen many NGOs come and go while nothing has actually changed for them. Now they can see a positive change and sense that they have a real opportunity themselves.”

Our beekeeping program has seen an impressive rise in honey production from 511 liters in the first to 1,430 liters in the second year. Given the success of the pilot, the Martin Bauer Group is looking forward to expanding the project in 2020. By providing the right tools, guidance and knowledge to people like Ignacio, the project is empowering wild collectors and smallholders to access new sources of income. This makes families more financially secure and enables communities to thrive. As a result, wild collection and smallholding are remaining viable and attractive livelihoods for people in the San Pedro region.

Der Beitrag Bee confident erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

At the Martin Bauer Group, we have a comprehensive understanding of quality. It isn’t just about having high expectations of our raw materials, it includes the fair treatment of our supply partners and a decent standard of living in the places where we source our ingredients.

The Assiut region of Egypt, around 400 kilometers south of Cairo, is an important growing area for Martin Bauer. Here, we obtain mabagrown-quality peppermint, chamomile, fennel, marigolds, lemongrass and more. These raw materials are grown on a farm that is expertly managed by our supply partner Ottoman in the area between the fertile Nile Valley and the vast Arabian Desert.

Poverty and unemployment are rife in rural regions

Rural areas of Egypt are beset with a host of problems including poverty, high unemployment, and inadequate healthcare. Jobs at the Fairtrade-certified farm in Assiut are therefore very desirable. Farm workers here earn enough to support their families, and these jobs do not pose the health risks of some other jobs in, for example, the cement factory or conventional agriculture.

Farm workers are vaccinated and regularly examined, and when they or their family members require medical treatment they receive medicines free of charge.

We are therefore confident that the workers in our supply chains are relatively well served when it comes to occupational health and safety. However, our supply partners and farmworkers have reported widespread health problems in their community – and we aimed to remedy those.

Focusing on nutrition and health

We worked with our customer Traditional Medicinals to develop the HANA (Health and Nutrition Awareness) initiative. Our intention is for the initiative to successfully target 1,000 people by summer 2020.

HANA pools means and measures to achieve two primary goals: making medical services more accessible in the remote community, and imparting practical knowledge about health and nutrition to farmworkers and their families.

In this way we will bolster health literacy in the community and help people take an informed and self-determined approach to leading a healthier life.

Clinic on wheels gets a great response

In an initial step, we worked with our partner NGO Assiut Childhood Development Association  to organize a traveling clinic. This February, the bus drove to the community of Arab El Kelabat with four experienced physicians on board. They were barely able to keep up with the rush of patients: 524 adults and children came to the mobile unit for a free checkup.

The doctors carried out several hundred gastroenterological, urological and pediatric exams. They treated acute cases and referred seriously ill patients for further medical attention. Since the traveling clinic was so well received, we plan to send it out again. Next time, we hope that an ophthalmologist, a gynecologist, a neurologist and an orthopedist will also be on board.

Health literacy as a decisive factor

A four-week training program in March equipped people in the community to take active steps towards improving their own health. The course covered topics relevant to participants’ daily lives such as preventative healthcare, contraception, and how to eat a balanced diet. Ensuring that women have a high degree of health literacy generally has a positive impact on entire families, so the training program focused particularly on women. But there were also tailored training measures targeting men, parents and schoolchildren. Thankfully, we were able to complete the training program before measures to prevent the spread of the corona virus stopped people from being able to meet.

Corona in Egypt

In early February the first case of corona virus was confirmed in Egypt, which is the most populous country in North Africa. Although the figures are still far behind those of Europe and China, recently the number of confirmed cases has risen rapidly. As of April 5, 2020 the official statistics record 1,173 active cases and 78 deaths. Schools and universities have been closed since mid-March, as have archaeological sites, museums, airports and hotels since the end of the month. The Egyptian government has imposed a partial lockdown.

We will be continuing our work in the community as soon as we can.

Der Beitrag In good health erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.

ROUGH CLIMATE
Life in the Thar Desert in the western part of Rajasthan in India is not easy. It consists of heat, dust, wind and extreme dryness. And, as a result, also great poverty. Rain falls only during one month of the year and is completely absent in two out of three years. The rough climate especially determines the lives of the girls and women. They are responsible for fetching water and walk up to 10 hours a day in the heat of the desert, half of the way with heavy loads. 60-85% of the women are illiterate.

SEANNA FROM THE THAR DESERT
When rain comes, small farmers can cultivate senna – a plant whose healing power humans have been using for over 1,000 years. Senna is a frugal plant that grows where no food plant can thrive. It requires only little water and no pesticides or fertilizers. Therefore, Martin Bauer Group purchase senna from the Thar Desert in sustainably certified quality. Thus, the families receive a fair income in the dry period after the harvest.

MARTIN BAUER GROUP IS COMMITED
Beyond our sourcing, we are committed to the well-being of the people in our supply chain. In Rajasthan, we work together with the two NGOs WomenServe and Traditional Medicinals on the Revive! project.

THREE COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTERS ESTABLISHED
With our financial support, three Community Resource Centers were built between 2009 and 2014. In the centers, the senna harvest can be stored dry and clean, as well as grain, feed and seeds for the next sowing. But the centers are much more for the communities: they combine agriculture with health, education and empowerment.

• They are a popular meeting place for the village community,
• a protected marketplace where small farmers and self-help groups can offer their products,
• as well as a training and meeting room. The centers are equipped with electric light from a solar system, which is why the meetings and training sessions can take place even after dark, which accommodates many villagers.
• There are interiors with privacy for medical examinations and check-ups.
• The families can get to know, try out and use unknown technology here, e.g. solar lanterns and cookers.
• The roofs of the centers catch valuable rainwater.
• Playgrounds were installed for the children of the villages.

THE REVIVE! PROJECT
Since 2009, the project has been committed to the senna families in the Thar Desert and especially to the girls and women in the communities. It has already achieved a lot in five areas. For example:

• Water: The families can collect rainwater in Taankas and use it for drinking, cooking and washing. Until then, they had to spend a third of their income and a large part of their time supplying water.
• Food: The families have been able to create small gardens and some pastureland. They keep goats, cows or sheep and use their milk, manure and wool. A mobile veterinary camp has been set up in each of the 6 villages to treat sick animals. As a result, infections can no longer spread throughout the village herd.
• Health: Mobile medical camps and health education sessions have improved the health of the families. In each village, women have been trained as Village Health Workers. They especially support young mothers and help the families to make use of state health services.
• Education: 850 children, including 365 girls, receive lessons and a wholesome meal in three newly built primary schools. The majority of the girls have previously been excluded from education.
• Women: Women increasingly participate in the life and the decisions of the community. In 24 self-help groups with 183 active members, they try out how they can  contribute to the family income with animal husbandry, a village or spice shop, a flower mill or tailor shop and lead a more self-confident and self-determined life.  Additionally, 128 women are engaged in income-generating activities through the Thar Artisan Collective.

Der Beitrag Our Senna Small Farmers in Rajasthan erschien zuerst auf MartinBauer.