Peanuts for Haiti A joint APC, Edesia, MFK Project
In 2013, APC applied for and received Emerging Markets Program (EMP) funding from USDA to conduct a market analysis in Haiti. The aim of the analysis was to study the consumer market landscape for snack foods to determine if there was any opportunity for selling peanut-based RUSF products commercially.
The American Peanut Council partnered with Edesia, a Nutriset partner and manufacturer of peanut-based RUSF in Rhode Island. Edesia, in turn, worked with MFK, another Nutriset partner, based in Cap Haitian, Haiti. The first step of the project was to conduct focus groups of parents and school children, to see if there was interest and/or opportunity for these nutritionally enhanced foods to be sold to school children. We learned that Haitians do not necessarily follow the same three-meal-a-day pattern as is typical in the United States. Students buy snacks during school and almost always are sent to school with money to do so. The focus groups indicated that students might buy peanut-based RUSF if they were priced appropriately.
A report was also prepared, assisting APC and Meds and Food for Kids with understanding the marketplace and how such a product might be made available for sale. In January of 2016, APC staff Stephanie Grunenfelder and APC consultant Chris Goldthwait traveled to Haiti to observe MFK’s operation and understand how peanut-based foods are utilized. They saw a feeding clinic, a pediatric hospital, visited peanut farming operations and toured the RUTF and RUSF factory in Cap Haitian.
