Insights and Updates

Why we do what we do at Hectre

By March 23, 2020 No Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Think about how we got here. Every day, we enjoy the luxuries of the modern world, thanks to the knowledge and hard work of generations before us.

One industry in particular deserves more credit than it gets.

Farming enabled us to move from societies of 100 people to societies of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, to millions of people.

Today, you and I can show up at the supermarket and get affordable food, rich in healthy micronutrients thanks to growers all around the world. 

Yet there are more and more small-to-medium sized growers who have ceased to operate because of greater costs, more compliance to wade through, and they don’t get the benefit of economies of scale.

As we started our journey partnering with growers around the world, we realised as small to medium growers disappear, so too does the diversity and production of local produce. 

We meet growers every day who are working from dusk till dawn to simply continue to exist. They’re putting everything into their farms, their orchards, their livelihood.

Then one day, it gets too hard, too costly to maintain. With no one in the family to pass the farm onto, they’ve got no option but to sell to corporations or property developers.

 

This loss of small to medium growers results in less local produce, less food diversity, and the rise of monopolistic food systems. This affects everyone, on a global scale, for generations to come.

What we’ve learned is the people we help the most with Hectre are growers who work the same fields day in day out. We want to help them continue to exist, stay competitive, to survive and thrive.

We started by asking growers exactly what they needed. This is what we built. This, in turn, helped growers save time in the orchard so they can spend more of their time with their families. After all, this is the time they cannot get back.

We’ve helped growers reduce overheads by streamlining their operation. With rising costs and the return from fruit often flat, it’s so important to find ways to reduce overheads.

 

We’ve helped growers bring in techniques to reduce damage done to fruit so they can stop throwing away money on damaged fruit. Contributing to a 5% increase in packout for some growers can have a major effect on orchard gate return.

 

We’re humbled by the work these farmers and growers do. We’re thankful for the improved availability, diversity and affordability of food we have as a result of their hard work. We’re grateful to help these growers to survive and thrive.

 

We’re excited to align with growers who care about what they do, who care about the land, and who help make our world what it is today. Our decisions now can affect the way food systems work in the future. Let’s make it the best system we can.