1. What inspired you to create an organic and Fairtrade certified range of quinoa products?

Having spent the start of my career in Finance, which I greatly enjoyed, the financial crisis gave me the opportunity to reconsider whether I couldn’t be putting my time and energy into something more useful. As such I took my three kids out of school and went travelling to find a product that I could launch a Fairtrade business with. It was whilst in Peru that we discovered the delights of quinoa, and after a bit of research on the grain discovered that it was a truly amazing food-stuff. The product had been found and so we embarked on a tour of various cooperatives in Peru and Bolivia to secure our first supplier. In meeting Coopain, near the shores of Lake Titicaca up at 4000m the decision was sealed, as we were deeply impressed by their deep love of the soils they cultivated and the respect they had for the environment, practic-ing mixed agriculture, and applying crop rotation in a disciplined way, to ensure the lands riches would not be depleted and be available for generations to come.

2. What were the main challenges you faced in order to get an organic and Fairtrade range started; and are you still facing these challenges today?

Getting all the certifications in place was the first headache. It seems a bit of a topsy turvy world when you can put un-healthy, chemically toxic food products on the market with almost no barriers, and yet if you wish to commercialise healthy, clean products that treat the suppliers fairly you need to jump through so many hoops. This is a source of con-tinual frustration, but sadly the huge multinational agrobusinesses are unlikely to let anything change quickly. Food products should be declaring how they treat their suppliers, the ecological impact of the contents and chemical resi-dues found in the food, rather than continuously having to prove that everything is ethical and free of all nasties!

3. What were the most memorable, defying moments during this time?

Arriving at Coopain three years into the venture and seeing a gleaming new tractor, that had been purchased with the proceeds of the Fairtrade supplement. The farmers were keen to show me how they could plough a field in a couple of hours rather than 2 days of back breaking work with an ox and a plough. This concrete reality made all the hard work of the previous years feel like it had been very worthwhile.

4. What helped you to see it through to the end?

Once you are launched it is pretty hard to turn back- so much time, sweat and pain have been invested in the venture that the only way seems to be forward.

5. What are your plans for the next 5 years?

We would like to expand our geographical footprint, in particular retailing our products in the US, so that more people can easily buy our healthy, organic and vegan ranges. Helping people to enjoy healthy food and educating the consumer that what we put into our bodies is possibly the most important decision we make on a daily basis. We have plenty more product ideas up our sleeves, so we would also like to see our range extend from 30 products towards at least 100.