Adding value for our farmers, ourselves and our customers

It’s been a year since our sister company .pepper..field won the rare GOLDEN FORK award at the Great Taste awards in the UK. This award is considered the ‘gastronomic Oscar’ in the food industry. The prize was awarded to the never-before-seen (or tasted) freeze-dried Kampot pepper. 

How adding value at the source led to added-value for the whole supply chain

Since the founding of EU Land in 2018, our Czech sister brand - .pepper..field has been developing novel products and supplying fair-trade, exquisite Kampot pepper from Cambodia directly to the consumer market within the Czech Republic and surrounding markets. 

Several examples of the innovative products made by .pepper..field - nut butters with pepper (above), gin with pepper (below).

We have been able to help open the EU market and set all the requirements, including fair prices, purchasing, logistics, export, integration of local designs and marketing, up to the final stage of finding the end customer.

This has brought value to the whole supply chain - from the farmers, all the way through to our customers. See how:

Value added at the source

The small, independent farmers who are the source of this internationally recognized and coveted pepper have faced many challenges in the last century. 

First it was colonized by the French, then a near decimation of all pepper crops in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, a bloody civil war and in the most recent times, the fear of losing their farms as large, foreign-owned plantations came into being. 

These small farmers could not compete with the larger corporations who have the finances to make large purchases of machinery which makes it possible to prepare and ship internationally. 

For the sustainable development of our company, technological provision was necessary, thanks to which the project would be self-sufficient, would ensure the support of small farms and would not be technologically or procedurally dependent on cooperation with other parties or large farms.

In 2020, with the contribution of the B2B Program of the Czech Development Agency, we were able to deliver a dryer and a vacuum-sealing machine from the Czech companies Imatech and Sušárny Konel, as well as ten smaller packaging units from the Pardubice company VAC-STAR CZ to our Kampot pepper farmers in Cambodia.

Imported technology allows Cambodian growers to dry and vacuum seal the produce, thereby increasing its quality and durability.

"From the very beginning, we have been buying pepper from farmers at 100% fair trade prices. In this way, we ensure economic self-sufficiency and growth not only for them, but for the entire area. We have listed all involved farmers transparently on our website www.pepperfield.com. It is great that the Czech Development Agency also got involved in the project, which, as part of the development program, helped develop freeze-dried pepper thanks to the purchase of Czech machines from LYOTRADE, which freeze-dries pepper. In this way, real authentic Cambodia arrives at the customer's home, and in return they can be sure that they are helping specific people to live a quality life in other parts of the world," 

Klára Dohnalová, co-founder .pepper..field

Value added for our company - recognition for quality and meaningful business

It was freeze-dried Kampot pepper that received the GOLDEN FORK award in England in 2021, the highest gastronomic trophy that can be won as part of a global competition. 

Out of 14,113 entered products from 108 countries around the world, only 14 products reached this imaginary gastronomic Oscar. 

More than 500 judges of the Guild of Fine Food evaluate all the products that entered the competition during two months. Each of them is carefully tasted - blindly - by top chefs, buyers, sellers, restaurateurs or food critics. 

(Our team receiving the GOLDEN FORK in 2021.)

The product is then further awarded with one, two or three stars. The GOLDEN FORK is only awarded to 14 products from around the world - 1 product for each region of the world.

This award to our sister project was a huge success for us both. It spoke to the high quality of the product of origin itself (Kampot pepper) and the ingenuity of our team to create such a novel product, and with it brought much deserved recognition to our company. 

We are proud that we can boast of the quality that we offer our customers while staying true to our original purpose for forming this company - to enrich the lives of the Kampot pepper farmers and their communities.  

Value added for our customers - great taste for conscious consumers 

With this award-winning product, similarly to other delicacies from .pepper..field we helped deliver a product that make the mouth as happy as it makes the heart and soul :)

Great Taste Awards judges are looking for truly great taste, regardless of brand or packaging. With lyophilized Kampot pepper, they can find more than that - it is unique worldwide. 

"In the beginning, there was a desire to bring really fresh Kampot pepper to Europe. Its delicate taste, when the green pepper is still freshly plucked from the pepper vine,"

describes Lukáš Hejtmánek, one of the founders of the .pepper..field project, adding: 

"We wanted to develop a targeted product that no one else in the world has and thanks to which our farm families can be competitive and at the same time have something unique."

The combination of sharpness and sweetness with a touch of mint makes Kampot pepper a specialty that is coveted by the best chefs. The renaissance in the cultivation of Kampot pepper in Cambodia was contributed by its inclusion on the European list of products with protected geographical indications (PGI), thanks to which it shares the rank of uniqueness with the likes of cheddar or champagne. 

The necessary certifications needed to prove authentic Kampot pepper.

Also part of the purchase - the knowledge that you are supporting a community a world away, where they are paid fair-trade prices which allow them to help their children attend school for longer, get medical insurance and make repairs on their houses.