Launching A Food Business With And For The Mare People
by Ago, Mitra BUMMA friend & Produce Canvassing operations team
I’m Ago, a member of the Mare Tribe in Papua, the home of the Auok river, Seni river and Sidi lakes. I was born in Seya village 35 years ago and spent my childhood surrounded by large primary forests. I graduated from Muhamadiyah University in nearby Sorong city with a Political Science degree and currently work as a officer in the Maybrat District office.
This is a story of how a few friends and I partnered with Mitra BUMMA and their community partner Kaoem Telapak to launch the Mare Produce canvassing business to meet the unique economic and cultural needs of the Mare people.
Ago at a stop to collect more local produce from farmers using Mitra BUMMA's truck.
Before joining local government, I worked in the micro-finance industry serving small and medium enterprises in Sorong city. Working in micro-finance allowed me to interact with many different cultures and peoples including many Papuan mothers – Mama-mama Papua – who depend on traditional markets for their livelihoods. This experience taught me about the challenges that many Papuan women, like myself, face in the modern economy.
Unlike many who live and work in capitalist economies, most Mare people live off the land. Most of us do not work a nine to five job nor earn a wage. Our labor is that of tending to our lands and people. We do not go to the grocery store to procure sustenance. Instead, we hunt, gather, and grow our own food.
Mare community farmers and Produce Canvassing Lead, Oge, purchasing inventory from one of Mitra BUMMA's suppliers and selling the goods at a local market.
Here's how our produce canvassing business works: We develop partnerships with subsistence farmers in various Mare villages along our distribution route. Then, we collaborate with each farmer to develop a procurement schedule and pricing. Every week, we purchase and pick up heirloom vegetables, tubers, legumes, and fruit and sell them to local and regional markets.
Typical infrastructure and road damage along distribution route.
This business model may seem basic, but it has a tremendous impact on my community.
It creates a new income stream, particularly for women, in an area that does not offer many job opportunities. More importantly, since women are predominantly the farmers in our society, it provides employment opportunities for women at a higher rate than other sectors.
It strengthens local economies. We purchase, sell, and increase the value of native products, incentivizing local peoples to purchase traditional goods over imported ones. Our trucks also provides one of the only logistics supports to Mare households (there’s only one road in an out, and the conditions can be dangerous!)
Community members foraging Keladi (a staple tuber in Papuan diets) and the Mitra BUMMA team with a successful haul that will be sold in local markets.
Lastly, it has reinvigorated the energy of the Mare people. We launched four months ago and have already onboarded forty-one suppliers in nine villages! This year, we’ll continue to focus on quality and profit sharing. It has been amazing to see the demand in staple Mare products, like Keladi, increase in demand in Sorong city. We hope that our small start-up can bring the joy of Mare products to others as well as provide a vision of what an indigenous-owned and serving businesses can look like.
