Bali Box

(Cashew nut snack, roasted and salted (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In eastern Bali, where the climate is dry and the soil unforgiving, just about the only trees that thrive are those producing cashew apples. But  while the residents depend on their crops for sustenance, perhaps 90% of the processing is done in places like Vietnam and India. Meaning: Most of the money is made elsewhere; the average income is $2 a day.

That's why Aaron Fishman, who moved there with his wife, Lindsay, about two years ago, decided the time was right to start a cashew processing plant smack dab in the rural village of Ban, where they resided. And thanks to an unusual partnership with private equity firm KKR and Shujog, a Singapore-based non-profit focused on social enterprises in Asia, he's made it happen. His East Bali Cashews, the first large-scale cashew processing plant in Bali, employs more than 200 local workers using eco-friendly practices to unshell, package and sell the food.

What's more, he recently raised $900,000 to expand the plant and, eventually, move to other locations.

How did  he raise all those funds? About a year after the company started up, KKR, interested in working with a social entrepreneurial venture, approached Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), a Singapore-based investment platform for social enterprises (I wrote about them several months ago), to help find a growing social venture they could work with.

Fishman had already approached IIX for funding, but had been told he first needed to prove the concept. By scraping together money from friends and family, and leaning on credit cards, he was able to get up and running, and was ready to show potential investors he'd provided the proof. At the point at which KKR approached IIX, Fishman was sorely in need of working capital, looking to quintuple his warehouse capacity and triple revenues and, he says, "to go about raising the money more professionally."

When he approached IIX again, his timing was perfect. KKR decided to  provide funding for IIX through the Singapore company's non-profit sister organization Shujog, allowing the enterprise to do a social impact analysis of East Bali Cashews that could be used in raising money from social impact-minded investors.

So, IIX and KKR each sent a team out to Bali, where they accomplished a lot: aside from doing an impact investment evaluation, they analyzed the financials and the industry, created a business plan and a road map for approaching investors for working capital, and provided a lot of advice.

With that, Fishman was ready to start knocking on potential investors' doors "with a much more mature plan than I would have had by just telling people we'd like to grow," he says. He ended up raising $900,000 from three private investors, including Red River Foods, a major importer of tree nuts, dried fruit, seeds and specialty snack products , in part by emphasizing the company's humane working conditions. According to Fishman, workers in plants in other countries face "despicable working conditions" that have been compared to slave labor.

"We highlight our model as different and better," he says. (Just so you know: The cashew is actually a seed encased in a hard coating inside a cashew apple; roasting, shelling and cleaning of the kernels is a laborious process and the shells can be highly corrosive).

He's been able to quintuple processing capacity and hire another 100 workers; he now has around 230 employees, most of whom are women who have never held a job before. He also plans to introduce a daycare center for workers' children age three months to five years. Employees will pay 50 cents a day and the rest will be subsidized by the company.

But Fishman has bigger goals. Bali has only 3% of Indonesia's cashews, he says; most of them grow on other islands.  His objective is to build a factory that's 10 times the size of the current one, using the Bali facility as a prototype.

Central to the plan is not only employing local residents at the plant, but also reaching out to the 6,000 or so farmers in the area who make $300 to $400 a year from their crops. He's helping to teach them techniques with the aim ultimately of increasing their yield, as well as starting to do hibiscus planting."If we can double their yield and get the product certified organic, they're going to make more money and I'm going to make more money," he says.

Fishman and his wife, a nurse practitioner specializing in women's health, had been living in Boston for three years when they decided to try joining the Peace Corps. (Fishman worked as an EMT, also learning about emergency health care in the wilderness).  But budget cuts pushed back their program. So they bought tickets to Indonesia to volunteer for an NGO for which a friend already was working. They started teaching villagers about wound care, nutrition, proper sanitation and the like, and were surprised by the depth of the poverty they encountered. Electricity, for example, had just been introduced four months earlier.

Then Fishman learned about the cashew situation and the lack of any large-scale processing facility in the area. With previous experience in operations management "My business side took over," he says. "I said, I'm going to start one." With that, he and his wife moved into their own house (the owner of the place they'd been living in eventually became the plant's floor manager) and decided to stay permanently. Fishman, of course, knew nothing about cashew production but "we just figured it out," he says.  Part of his plan included an unusual way of getting energy: Heat and steam comes from discarded cashew shells.

For Fishman, the biggest challenge is marketing and distribution. He's an operations manager, not a marketing guy. For now, he sells to local supermarkets, as well as restaurants and hotels, in addition to exporting. Ultimately, he envisions his products being sold by the type of retailers that like to show where their food comes from. Up until now, he says, such stores might indicate where, say, all their cheeses and lettuce originated, but the cashews would be in a bin and "for all you know, they could have been processed in a sweatshop somewhere."

That can't happen until he's found a way to pay for a new packaging design, however.  "I've looked into design firms that charge $20,000," he says. "That's what the first facility cost." (forbes.com)

As a top international tourist destination, millions of domestic and foreign tourists visit Bali every year for various reasons, such as for a vacation or to get married.

Known as the Island of the Gods, Bali offers visitors natural beauty and a unique culture. The province's allure prompts many people to get married here, hence the idea to hold the 2013 Wedding Expo at Aston Hotel in Denpasar, from Nov. 8 to 10.

Event committee head Lucy Gani explained that Bali's scenic beauty for pre-wedding and wedding photos offers settings that give couples unforgettable memories.

The exhibition, themed My Dream Wedding, is the largest wedding expo to be held in Bali and offers various options to those wanting to marry on the island.

Lucy said exhibitors would be showcasing bridal gowns, jewelry, venues and much more at the event. Exhibitors also come from cities outside Bali like Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Some are also from abroad, such as those from Singapore.

Event promotion and media coordinator Grace Jeanie said that besides being a suitable event for brides and grooms, the expo also gave exhibitors the chance to establish business relations among themselves.

She said the event was open to the public for free.

Various games, a fashion parade and discussions will also be held. There will also be door prizes during the three-day event.

Separately, Bali Tourism Promotion Board head Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati said the island's allure as a wedding venue was due to its scenic beauty, such as pristine beaches, rice fields and mountains. Many also opt to wed in a village, with local residents' involvement, he added.

"That is why Bali is chosen as a wedding venue," said the Ubud royal family member.

He said the provincial administration should work hard to promote local tourism.

Tjok Oka Artha said the fact that many local celebrities chose to marry in Bali and that articles had been written about the island being a place for the sacred ceremony helped promote the island.

Furthermore, Bali was one of the locations in the movie Eat, Pray and Love starring Julia Roberts. The movie — adopted from a true story — ended with the main character finding happiness on the paradise island.