MM's inclusive business model is to source large volumes of fruit from a mixture of smallholder farmers and its own Rainforest Alliance certified plantations. The company will work with local communities to graft better quality mango material to trees with poor fruit thereby increasing the yield and quality of the mangoes; MM will then guarantee to buy all the mangoes grown on these trees. In an area where less than 15% of the population has regular employment, the company will be generating over 1,000 jobs in farm work and at their processing plant. It is estimated that the activities of the business will impact the livelihoods of up to 12,000 local households once it is fully operational.

The commercial driver for the business is the strong growth in demand for mango and banana pulp in both global and regional markets. The business will capitalise on low production prices, excellent growing conditions and access to water from Lake Malawi for irrigation purposes The decision to export pulp products mitigates the geographical and infrastructure challenges faced by Malawian exporters since they do not demand rapid access to major transport hubs that fresh produce requires.

BIF are supporting this ambitious start up with consultancy for some of their farm planning work, including irrigation design, setting up the banana farm to meet organic standards and planning the mango outgrower scheme.

MM hopes to become an example of how such a value-added business development opportunity can be created in Malawi, potentially encouraging other industry players to copy their approach and generate further export opportunities with associated pro-poor impacts.