In 2009, Chuck Nicholson introduced PT. SunRei Food Products’ dried mangos to a U.S. grocery store. It was the first time the product had been sold commercially in the United States. A few years earlier, when Chuck first started talking to rural families in Tiron, Indonesia about drying mangos, their eyes narrowed at the idea. They had many questions including, “Why would anyone want to dry a mango?” and were puzzled by the dehydrating machines they had never before seen. Chuck was working with people with a 5th grade education, who had never ventured far from their village, and they questioned the notion of exporting dried mangos.

The attitudes of the rural families changed after Chuck’s transaction with the U.S. store. Their eyes widened with the news that product from their village was actually being sold in the United States. They never imagined that something they made would find its way to a market in a foreign country. While a single deal with a grocery story may not seem like much to a businessman, to Chuck’s friends in the village it was a very big deal.

REI invested in the research and development of the dehydrators that have been successfully deployed in village areas like Tiron. Through the introduction of these technologies, people have been trained, relationships have been established, and the prospects of community development have been enhanced. And three years later, SunRei’s Java Bite dried mango fruits are again available for purchase in the U.S.

REI Indonesia—Building People to Build a Nation … one dehydrator at a time.

To learn more about Chuck’s efforts, visit his blog, Java Bite Morsels.

To purchase product, click here.

To follow Chuck on Twitter and get updates on the SunRei’s Java Bite products, click here.