Catherine Krobo- Edusei Benson: On a mission to develop a better nation through healthy eating
The first time I met Catherine Krobo-Edusei Benson she had driven to my class at Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) straight from her farm, arriving in muddy Wellington boots and carrying a basket of fresh fruit and vegetables.
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She had come to give a talk to my Level 300 entrepreneurship students about business strategy. Yet it was clear she had other intentions: to spread the word about the importance of a healthy diet.
And when she began telling her remarkable story, it became clear that for this determined woman growing a fruit and vegetable empire up from the soil itself, was on more than a business mission.
The motto of her company, Eden Tree, bears this out: “A healthier people, a better nation.”
Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Benson started off in a completely different career – in her case as a desk-bound banker.
Starting the dream
After having two children in quick succession, she decided to take a career break to focus on raising her children. She “prayed” for other, part-time, opportunities that would give her time to spend with her kids. “I didn’t want to go back to the office environment because I wanted to be close to the children,” she says.
Her original plan was to pursue aloe vera farming and had asked her sister-in-law in London to send her some literature on the subject.
By a quirk of fortune though her sister-in-law mistakenly sent her some books on planting completely different types of herbs and species. Not put off by the subject matter, Benson dived into the books and ended up falling in love with the idea of growing a much wider selection of plants. She asked her sister-in-law to send down a batch of varied seeds - so she could begin the process of growing herbs in her own backyard.
After harvesting the first produce and taking enough for her family meals, Benson packaged the rest and sent them to then the only large supermarket in Accra at the time – Kwatsons (Now Koala) at Osu – to try and sell them.
A sceptical manager agreed to stock the herbs on condition that if they didn’t sell Benson would come back to collect them the next day. She agreed. When she returned the next day, she was delighted to find that the herbs had flown off the shelves and customers were asking for more.
That was the confirmation she needed about the huge demand she suspected existed. “I knew there were people working in the embassies, expatriates and returnees who craved such fresh herbs for cooking healthy meals but couldn’t find them in the traditional open-air markets at the time,” she explains. “I just didn’t expect that I would be blown away by the scale of demand that existed.”
So, in order to start a business to fulfil this demand, she went back home and expanded her small backyard farm into a two-acre plot with the help of two workers. Within six months she started producing vegetables too.
Now the demand for Eden Tree’s produce is so great that it has had to develop an “out-grower” scheme, with a network of trusted farmers across the country to supply the company with the produce that it is unable to grow itself.
Before a farmer can become a supplier to Eden Tree, his farm is inspected and he or she must commit to certain high standards, which are regularly monitored.
All the produce from the out-grower farms is sent to the company’s processing plant, where it is painstakingly inspected, cleaned and bagged.
I am told by industry observers that Eden Tree’s out-grower scheme has been so successful precisely because of the hands-on leadership that Benson provides.
She visits the farms herself regularly and has provided a revolving loan fund which her out-growers can access to expand their holdings.
It is clear that Benson believes in the importance of a balanced diet in preventing common illnesses and has developed a strong passion for ensuring that more Ghanaians consume fruit and vegetables on a daily basis to balance our carbohydrate-rich diets.
With that intention Eden Tree is now on an expansion drive to ensure nationwide distribution and expansion into the sub-region. According to Benson: “We want to be a household name in almost every kitchen in Ghana ... There is a huge opportunity to explore for Ghanaians to change their diets to healthy and balanced diets.”
Benson’s embodiment
Benson herself is the very picture of vitality and of healthy eating – the perfect poster child for Eden Tree’s ethos. Her skin is radiant, her hair is glowing and she is in great shape. You might not believe that her children for whom she gave up her banking career years ago are now in their early 20s.
The devoted mother and successful businesswoman firmly believes she inherited her “entrepreneurial genes” from her father, the late Krobo Edusei, the popular and outspoken Ghanaian politician.
“I was probably born this way,” she says. “You know my father was a successful entrepreneur during those days when I was growing up. So I think that is where his little girl got it from. Ask anybody around me and they will tell you: I am a go-getter!”
