HPW’s Rise in the West African Dried Fruit Industry
Nestled in Ghana’s lush Eastern Region, HPW Fresh & Dry has become a global leader in dried fruit snacks manufacturing, supplying sweet pineapples, mangoes, and coconuts to supermarkets worldwide. HPW has also transformed the local region through its commitment to local employment: police have noted that the youth stay out of trouble and their parents can now build homes. “With FMO’s support, we ended up in a completely different league.”
FMO investments
2023 EUR 0.32 mln
for a technical assistance project
2022 EUR 4 mln and EUR 2 mln
working capital and expansion of factory
FINANCIAL PRODUCTS USED Loans
TENOR 6 years
FUNDING SOURCE BUILIDING PROSPECTS
Building Prospects is a Dutch government fund managed by FMO
Ghana—often lovingly called the gateway to Africa—is probably best known for the cosmopolitan lifestyle in Accra, the kilometers of rolling beaches, and its cocoa industry. But if you hop into a car and drive for just 2 hours to the northeast of Accra, you’ll end up in the Eastern Region in the town of Adeiso. If you leave town, you’ll soon find yourself driving on a snaking, quiet road that grants you stunning views of lush forests and sloping hills scraping against low-hanging clouds in the distance. For most of the 15–20-minute drive out of town, you’ll see just a handful of cars passing by and little else going on. But eventually, all of that will change as you stumble upon three large drying and processing factories between 3,800 to 6,000 square meters covered with solar panels, surrounded by a smattering of offices and buildings on 48 acres of land, sometimes with over a thousand people milling about the grounds.
This is HPW Fresh & Dry, the beating heart of the region. They’re one of the largest producers of dried pineapple, mango, and coconut on the African continent, and process these incredibly sweet, dried fruit that taste as if they’ve been frozen in time at peak ripeness—which, in a way, is exactly what they’ve done.
If you’ve ever bought dried mango, coconut, or pineapple from your local supermarket like Whole Foods in the US, Edeka in Germany or Woolworth in Australia; or bought a fruit snack like a mango roll from brands like Smiling, Urban Fruit, or Tropicks, chances are high it may have come from HPW Fresh & Dry. They primarily sell dried fruit with no added sugar, but to a lesser extent sell fresh fruit, as well as fruit snacks like pineapple rolls or chocolate-covered fruit. With 2 locations in Ghana and Ivory Coast, HPW employs around 2,000 local employees, processes over 30,000 tons of fresh fruit—which they source from their network of 1,931 smallholder farmers—and exports over 3,000 tons of dried fruit across the world, making it the leading producer of dried fruit in West Africa.
Fresh fruit processed:
Sourced from:
smallholder farmers
FRESH-CUT FRUIT REINVENTED
Looking out towards the original drying factory from the main offices, James Obeng, the Managing Director of HPW Fresh & Dry, says, “It’s been a long journey to get to where we are today, but one that’s well worth it,” Responsible for the short- and medium-term strategy of the company, he’s been a part of the team for almost two decades. Their story begins in 1997 with HPW AG, the Switzerland-based head company founded by Hans Peter Weder. Hans began selling pineapples to large retailers, but as most of them had their own suppliers, it was difficult to penetrate the market. A visit to Ghana introduced Hans to the untapped potential of the fresh Ghanaian pineapple, which set him on a mission to introduce Europe—and eventually, much of the rest of the world—to just exactly what Ghana had to offer. “What ultimately helped us find our niche was the fact that we were able to offer Fair Trade certified fruit, which was exactly what Europe wanted at the time.” In fact, one farm in HPW’s network became the very first Fair-Trade certified pineapple farm back in 2004, which led to a sharp uptick of demand. That same year, the Swiss branch sent over Maik Blaser—the Ghana branch’s first agronomist who would eventually become a director—to grow the local network, source more fruit, and further develop the market for them to export more fresh fruit.
"What helped us find our niche was the fact that we were able to offer Fair-Trade certified fruit, which was exactly what Europe wanted at the time."
of all the pineapples in Ghana between 2000 and 2008 came from one of HPW's partner.
He continues: “I think what made HPW successful was that we really latched onto something that people wanted: socially responsible fresh-cut fruit.” And it most certainly was something that the people wanted. By 2007, they were exporting 20 containers (or 320 tons). Between 2008-2009, an impressive 50% of all the pineapples in Ghana came from one of our partners. “But then came the 2008 financial crisis, and pineapple out of the Americas became more competitively priced. We had to sell Fair-Trade pineapple as conventional produce, which led to quite a loss. However, it made us think about how we could be more evergreen and create more value.”
This, in part, was the impetus for what would eventually become known as HPW Fresh & Dry: ergo, the same product, just reinvented. In 2011, they opened their first drying plant in Adeiso, nestled in the heart of the pineapple region in Ghana, with scores of pineapple fields within a 5-to-50-kilometer radius. And while the original plan was for dried pineapple to be the primary export, mango quickly became an international bestseller. After trying one of the dried mangoes, it’s easy to see why.
2007 | HPW exports 320 tons of fresh-cut fruits per year
2008 | Lower-priced pineapples from the Americas drove Ghanaian exports out of the market
2011 | HPW opened their first drying plant in Adeisa
2024 | HPW exports 3,000 tons of dried fruit per year
Photo: Washing the mangoes prior to peeling and cutting them
The ingenuity of transforming a relatively low-margin fruit into a high-margin premium snack sold across the globe cannot be overstated, but it most certainly wasn’t smooth sailing. When asked if there were any growing pains as they started drying fruit, James laughs and says, “The entire concept was difficult at first!”
As one of the pioneers of dried fruit exporters on such a scale, there was a lot of trial-and-error involved, particularly for the drying process. As we stand in one of their first three drying rooms—which is around 20 square meters—James reminisces, “It took three months to get the process down to a science so we could safely fill the entire drying room to meet external demand.” As pineapples are more porous than mangoes, the temperature and humidity had to be set differently, and if they filled the drying room completely, they ran the risk of thousands of mangoes going bad, requiring them to experiment with finding the right settings in smaller batches. Since then, they’ve come a long way: in the 2nd half of 2011, they exported 49 tons of fruit. In 2012, it was 312 tons over the whole year. Today, in the peak of mango season, they can produce 450 tons of dried mango—in one month.
Photo: Quality check of mangoes
Video: HPW's drying and processing factories in Adeiso, Ghana
TURNING WASTE INTO ENERGY
The circularity embedded into various parts of the sprawling factory make for an interesting walkthrough with James—who exchanges friendly jokes with various of the 1,200+ employees, all of who he knows by name. A stop at a pond between two of the drying facilities is a prime example; it’s a large man-made body of water the team created to collect and store rainwater. Next to it is a state-of-the-art water treatment system that purifies and treats the water to meet hygiene standards in Europe, which have stringent testing requirements for hydrocarbons, something not required in Ghana. Gesturing to the reverse osmosis system, which removes contaminants such as sulfates, viruses, and arsenic, James says, “We started doing this before the EU began enforcing the testing of fruits for trace hydrocarbons. When other players had to scramble to meet tighter requirements, we were already there.” On the renewable energy side, they also have a biogas digester which processes organic waste and converts it into electricity and heat. “This was also quite tricky to set up, as the engineer who set it up had experience in using animal and human waste, but not food waste,” James says. “We really wanted to create a circular model, so it took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to get it to work exactly. We began by using cow dung and slowly adding in pineapple peels, but we ended up losing everything due to a chemical reaction and had to start from scratch again.”
"We really wanted to create a circular model, so it took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to get it to work exactly."
Then there’s the biomass boilers, where coconut shells, mango seeds, and sawmill waste from a nearby lumbering factory are burned to provide heat for drying the fruit. In short, there’s a myriad of systems in place throughout the fruit processing company which contributes to responsible consumption and a circular economy. “And it’s a never-ending process as well we’re on to improve HPW’s circularity,” James confirms.
HPW employs over 2,000 local employees in Ghana and Ivory Coast, directly impact over 1,500 smallholder farmers, and have remained financially profitable over the past several years.
employees in Ghana and Ivory Coast
smallholder farmers are directly impacted
Photo: Ariel view of HPW's premises in Adeiso, Ghana
AN EASY CHOICE, BUT NOT AN EASY ROAD
“From a local perspective, we’re lucky to have HPW Switzerland managing the long-term strategy and broader financials,” James says. “We can focus on building relationships on the ground and getting the fruit out. We’ve built two new factories in Ghana, and one in Ivory Coast, so our focus is on just trying to meet the demand, which we’re managing to keep up with, most recently with help from FMO.” In the earlier years, the main benefactor HPW Fresh & Dry had was their mother company in Switzerland, and all profits would be reinvested into the company. All expansions were made due to increasing demand, with the 2nd factory built in 2016 funded partly through a loan from a customer. The 3rd factory was built in Ivory Coast to diversify risk, but demand kept increasing, and since their working capital had been invested into the factory, they needed external investments to once again expand with a 4th factory (which would be their 3rd factory in Adeiso, Ghana).
"FMO really built a great relationship with us from the start, so we compared all other offers to FMO. In the end, it was the best choice."
investment via FMO (needs to be EUR)
led to an increase of approx.
provided
new jobs on-location
Which is where FMO stepped in, via another FMO customer in Ghana. While HPW ended up fielding several proposals from various investors, James says, “FMO really built a great relationship with us from the start, so we compared all other offers to FMO. In the end, it was the best choice.”
Via a USD 6 mln investment from FMO, HPW was able to increase production by ~200 tons to ~1,500 tons, reduce post-harvest losses for farmers, and provide 450 new jobs on-location, exponentially increasing the tangible impact HPW was able to offer.
“But while it was an easy choice, it wasn’t always an easy road with FMO,” James says, laughing. “It was honestly sometimes very frustrating. We’re used to focusing on the day-to-day work here, but FMO required us to take a longer-term perspective, something that usually is delegated to HPW Switzerland. If we wanted to be taken seriously, on a truly global level, we’d have to do this.” He recounts how going through the due diligence process was no easy feat: “The amount of documents and internal information we had to collect, verify, and submit took a lot of time, and with mango season starting, it was quite stressful. We had to wait a few months to hear back, only to be told we had to submit more documents, so it was really a difficult start at first.”
Photo: Inspecting freshly-cut pineapples before drying
But in the long run, was it worth it? The management at HPW believes so. “We’re in a different league now, honestly,” James says. “Now that we meet these international standards, we’ve unlocked so much more. And it’s not only financial support we’re getting from FMO.” He explains how he’s been to the African Cheetahs Roundtable, an invite-only event FMO organizes together with IFC and Finnfund to bring together Africa’s most promising, fast-growing agribusinesses. “It’s been so useful to us to meet like-minded, real companies and learn from their model and approaches across all aspects of your business.”
STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!
While having HPW Switzerland manage the long-term strategy and receiving support from FMO is a part of it, perhaps the central factor is the relationships that HPW Fresh & Dry cultivates: not as the company, but as the people behind the company. All of the 1,700 employees in Ghana have 20 paid days off, which increases to 24 after 10 years with the company, and there’s a creche on-site for parents to leave their young children and visit during their breaks. There’s also a gym that employees can use, with a monthly group workout all employees join. For employees without a car—which can be quite costly for many in Ghana—they provide transport to the factory. “We’ve always worked hard to ensure that as many of our employees as possible are employed year-round. While we do need an extra 500-600 seasonal workers during mango season, the rest of our employees work year-round,” James says. In the earlier days, this was done by expanding from just exporting pineapples to including mangos and coconuts. Now, they’ve partnered with a Kenyan fruit processor to ensure year-round mango production.
"We’ve always worked hard to ensure that as many of our employees as possible are employed year-round."
All of this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the local community: as the biggest employer in the district, HPW (in)directly positively impacts thousands in the local area. “We’ve directly helped a lot of people through employment and contracting transporters, fuel companies, auditors, and food suppliers, but it goes beyond that.” An example is the weekly market day in Adeiso: at the end of the month, more vendors than usual come in, since they know HPW employees have been paid and will buy more produce than normal. “It’s a great time of the month for everyone,” he says, chuckling. Meanwhile, according to the police, petty crime has dropped over the years as well; due to job creation, much of the local youth is employed, which keeps them off the street. Those who aren’t yet employed would do well to stay out of trouble, as having a record makes it harder to work at HPW. In a district where HPW is the primary private employer, that carries a lot of weight.
Photo: James Obeng, the Managing Director together with the staff of HPW Fresh & Dry
37 DIFFERENT MANGOES
In Ghana, there’s one dominant mango variety, which limits harvesting period to the same time across the country. HPW partnered with Ghana’s Ministry of Agriculture and GIZ—Germany’s main development agency—to bring in 37 different mangoes and test which varieties would mature earlier or later than the current variety, while also tasting the same and requiring the same care. After months of testing, they settled on three new species, and have propagated seedlings which are being distributed to farmers across the country, with the aim of increasing turnover and profits in the long run. “We also want to help our farmers succeed to the best of our capabilities,” he goes on. “That’s why we fly in experts to offer technical support and offer training to make farmers GlobalG.A.P certified, as it helps ensure higher premiums on their produce.” And there’s much more in the works to help bolster resilience, such as enabling farmers to grow different crops alongside their current offerings, like cocoa and food crops as well; and providing mulching trainings to minimize water loss. “Basically, we realize that climate change is here to stay, and it’s important to help build resilience to unpredictable weather patterns, as learnings from 10-15 years ago won’t always necessarily apply to today.”
EXPANDING HORIZONS
It’s undeniable that HPW is on an upwards trajectory, which is also part of the reason why they expanded to Burkina Faso. Henry Apraku, the company’s Business Development Manager, says, “We wanted to further diversify, especially given unpredictable weather conditions, which is why we decided to also operate in Burkina Faso.” While as early as 2014, HPW tried to buy fresh fruit from Burkina Faso, they quickly realized the fruit didn’t travel well and that the logistics were difficult, leading them to abandon that idea. In 2017 they experimented with semi-finished products; then in 2022, they sent a team to focus on Burkina Faso, including Henry. The expansion was supported in part through a repayable technical assistance grant of .32 mln from FMO, since the expansion aligned with FMO’s pioneering/market creation approach to reach smaller subsidiaries and smallholder farmers in more challenging environments.
"In Burkina Faso, mango is seen as a cash crop, and is primarily grown and processed by smaller smallholder farmers. It’s basically a way out of poverty."
Henry: “While we could’ve constructed our own factory there, we’ve gone for a different set-up. We essentially buy the dried fruit from other processors in a semi-finished state, bring it down here, ensure it meets the same standards as all our other fruit, and send it out onwards. It basically lets us sell more mangoes without needing to yet again increase our complete drying capacity here.” In Burkina Faso, mango is seen as a cash crop, and is primarily grown and processed by smaller smallholder farmers. “It’s basically a way out of poverty,” Henry explains. “And we take the same approach that we take here in Ghana with our farmers.” That involves providing support on which machines to buy, offering advance payment so farmers can purchase the necessary inputs, and regular climate resilience trainings and knowledge sharing, which also is supported by FMO through the repayable grant. “It’s a lot of work, traveling back and forth, but it’s well worth it,” he says.
NO FACTORY, NO JOBS
And that seems to be the mantra: that it’s all worth it. When asked what keeps them going, James says, “If we can’t sustain ourselves, we can’t support everyone here. It’s as simple as that. For everyone here, our level of quality directly contributes to our positive impact. We have people at HPW who’ve worked here for years, and now their kids work here, too. We also have colleagues here in non-leadership positions who’ve been able to build their own homes—that’s what keeps us going. Without the funds, there’d be no factory. No factory, no jobs.”
On the future, James has a simple answer as to where he sees HPW down the road. “I think innovation and future growth is inevitable. We need to develop products the market will always want. Tastes will change, but for the past two decades we’ve done a pretty good job.” Their R&D team is constantly experimenting with new healthy fruit snacks for the market. “As long as dried mango, pineapple, and coconut is wanted, we’ll keep providing it. We’re ready to expand further and keep supporting our network.” Meanwhile, in Burkina Faso, HPW is busy running tests to see what native crops farmers can grow after mango season so we can keep supporting them year-round.
But perhaps the best way to sum up the future of HPW is something James says at one point in the conversation which encapsulates the driving force of this place. “What I’d hope for this place is that it will be around long after we’re all gone,” he says. “I just want to build a place where our kids will be able to work.”
"The R&D team is constantly experimenting with new healthy fruit snacks for the market."
The impacts of vertical integration in agricultural value chains
FMO commissioned a study conducted by KIT Royal Tropical Institute which assessed the impacts of vertical integration in agricultural value chains, looking specifically at HPW and the economic and social benefits HPW provides for its employees, other value chain actors, and local economic development at large.
Comprised of a Theory of Change for HPW, as well as a literature review, 53 interviews, and nine focus group discussions, the study showed that HPW contributed to agricultural transformation and increased local value addition through innovative fresh fruit processing methods, while specialized technology spillovers to local service providers are limited. It also showed HPW’s operations have led to job creation, reduced inequality, and improved wellbeing for workers’ family, although there have been increased costs of living. Finally, regarding local sourcing, the study showed that supplying farmers received stable market access through the HPW partnership. While there are recommendations on how HPW could improve its contract farming scheme, data shows that HPW also helped increase the yield and quality of the fruit.
A FUTURE WE CAN FORESEE IS A FUTURE THAT WE CAN CREATE TOGETHER
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