Dignity Coconut Case Study

Dignity Coconuts.

“Our business was born out of a conviction to help communities overcome cycles of poverty and slavery. Not with a handout, but with a sustainable business that will bring lasting hope and change to communities.”

Industry:

When Dignity Coconut’s was first started in 2010, the coconut industry was much smaller than it is today. The benefits of coconut oil. coconut milk, and coconut water were not well known. Although coconut products did not explode into the mainstream markets until around 2011-2012 there were already many big players in the market. Dignity Coconuts could not compete with the cheaper prices of the larger companies. So they decided to enter the market as a higher quality brand of coconut products. To be a higher

But the Philippines have a huge problem, human trafficking. In 2007, an estimated 375,000 women and girls were tied into human trafficking in the Philippines. Stephen Freed and Don Byker saw the need and decided to do something about it. They realized that the victims needed sustainable work if they were to keep them out of human slavery and restore their dignity.

The Dignity team had a tough decision to make; should they build their business near a developed city or should they build near the rural farmers. They decided to build in the Bicol region (one of the poorest areas in all of the Philippines). This meant they would be able to have a huge impact on the local community; but it also meant the process of receiving building materials and exporting products would take much longer. Due to the fact that the roads in that area were so bad.

What impressed me about the

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

God directed Stephen and Don to the Philippines, (Don had been supporting an orphanage and schools there since the early 1970s), and little did Don Byker know 37 years earlier that he would be starting a business there in 2010.

The building process took two full years but they kept trusting God; they struggled to find Kingdom Investors but they kept trusting; early on entrepreneurs told them it would take twice as long, be twice as hard, and make half the projected profit, and it was even then the entrepreneurs projected, but they kept trusting God.

Their ingenuity.

“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.” Proverbs 3:13-14

The Dignity team noticed what a waste it was to only use two parts of the coconut, so they found a way to use the whole coconut. One coconut contributed to creating six products, letting almost none of it go to