Mars has launched the Fresh Futures program in Australia to support India’s mint growing communities to become more sustainable.
According to the manufacturer, Fresh Futures aims to advance plant science and invest in mint farmers and their communities in Uttar Pradesh to ensure their crops “thrive for generations”. Uttar Pradesh lies in the heart of India’s mint growing region and accounts for around 75% of the world’s fresh mint, a key ingredient in Eclipse Mints.
In Uttar Pradesh, mint farmers and their communities are faced with complex challenges such as changing weather patterns, poor soil health, low water availability, crop disease, low household income, gender inequality and educational disparity.
Fresh Futures will help fund local UN-backed programs designed to save water, improve soil, reduce disease, and increase productivity, while also helping educate, train and empower nearly one million women and children on their rights and entitlements, financial literacy, nutrition, health and sanitation.
Last month, Mars launched Fresh Futures across its Eclipse Mints brand, with a QR code on the tin that takes consumers to information about the community programs and the impact Fresh Futures is having on the ground in India. Initiatives include the training of 24,000 mint farmers on how to respond to changing weather patterns, improve soil health, reduce water usage, and improve crop resistance against disease.
“As a purpose-led organisation, we know that we have a responsibility to create the world we want tomorrow through how we do business today,” says Mars Wrigley Australia General Manager Andrew Leakey.
“Our Fresh Futures program is working to actively confront and address the issues within the mint farming communities, from sustainable farming practices through to education, empowerment and bolstering income and financial literacy to not only directly support mint farmers, but enable the broader mint farming community to thrive.”