J-Palm Liberia is proud today to announce an investment from the elea Center for Ethics in Globalization.
elea exists to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means, capitalizing on the benefits and opportunities of globalization
elea’s investment will enable JPL to invest in expanding its supply chain, and partner with more rural palm oil processing communities to create access to more efficient processing technology, and to make it easier for farmers to trade their produce.
The investment also comes with access to the elea network, which will provide support to J-Palm’s management team to improve internal operations and management as the company grows and scales.
elea’s investment compliments a grant J-Palm received in 2020 from the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to expand capacity and market access for Liberia’s rural smallholder farmers. This investment deal shows that grant-making institutions such as ADF can catalyze private-sector investment, and make it more viable and less risky for companies and social enterprise to provide services to severely underresourced and marginalized communities.
We founded J-Palm Liberia to demonstrate that the oil palm sector can be used as a force for good – to improve livelihoods for small-scale farmers, to create jobs for Liberians, and to help to alleviate poverty. elea’s investment moves J-Palm closer to this goal, and we are incredibly thrilled to partner with a world-class impact investor such as elea.
See elea's official press release below.
Can palm oil production be sustainable and alleviate poverty? Our new portfolio company J-Palm Liberia proves that it can!
J-Palm was founded single-handedly by Mahmud Johnson, who is convinced that the huge demand for palm oil can be met in a sustainable way. Operating in Liberia where absolute poverty is still widespread, J-Palm empowers smallholder farmers to reap an income from the local native palm trees. The company deploys mobile mini-mills in remote rural areas to drastically reduce both processing time and waste. Combined with strong local relationships this innovative model allows the company to source naturally organic and environmentally sustainable palm products from a distributed network of smallholder farmers.
Alongside supplying oil in large volumes domestically and internationally, J-Palm transforms the previously wasted palm kernel into organic health and beauty products which are sold on local markets. As a result of these efforts, farmers can experience a three-fold increase in income.
elea is excited to enter a new market and welcome a hugely impactful company to our portfolio.