Partner Description:

Hilltribe Organics was founded in 2013 as a social enterprise with the aim of sustainably increasing the income of hill tribe farmers in Northern Thailand through the introduction of free-range, organic chicken farms for egg production. Hilltribe Organics supplies farmers with feed for chickens as well as extensive training and expert advice to ensure farmers have all the resources necessary to carry out egg production. Hilltribe Organics guarantees to buy back the eggs at a fair and agreed upon price. The organization provides the chickens and purchases the farmers’ eggs, which are then sold to consumers.

Hilltribe works in the mountainous areas of northern Thailand, which are home to a very diverse group of ethnic minorities with different languages, cultures, and economies than the rest of the Thai population. Many of these communities cannot communicate with their central Thai counterparts, and often are not legally citizens of Thailand. Because of this, the hill tribe people face a higher degree of poverty than other groups in Thailand and lack basic access to much of the infrastructure provided by the state (medical services, schools, water, electricity, policing etc.). Price fluctuations, seasonal harvests and lack of access to major markets make it difficult to earn a predictable year round income. Hilltribe Organics' mission is to provide a stable and fair source of income to hill tribe families living in the Thailand province of Chiang Rai.

A unique lending approach:

Kiva loans will be used to purchase the organic chickens which lay at the core of Hilltribe’s business model. Farmers are each contracted to farm around 700 chickens, which are purchased at 16-weeks old and produce eggs up until 85 weeks. At this point the loan is repaid by farmers handing the chickens back to Hilltribe to sell to the food industry and generate cash to pay back Kiva.