About Ironbark Lao

Ironbark (Laos) Sole Co Ltd is a social business operating in Vilabouly, Laos. It was launched in 2014 with the goal of assisting smallholder families to grow citrus on a commercial basis, using horticultural best practice. The company operates a citrus nursery to provide trees to participating farmers, provides horticultural extension services and packs and markets fruit produced by the farming families. Ironbark Lao also operates a revolving loan fund providing capital loans to assist farmers to participate.

The vision of Ironbark Lao is to create an avenue for Laos farmers to move from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

Ironbark Lao has four interrelated components:

- A Nursery which grows citrus seedlings to sell to the farmers.
- A Revolving Loan Fund which provides finance to farmers
- A Farm Services Unit which provides services to the farmers including training, horticultural services and inputs.
- A Harvest and Marketing Unit which packs, markets and sells citrus produced in Vilabouly.

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Our participating farming families grow the citrus trees purchased from Ironbark Lao’s citrus nursery on their own land; purchase the horticultural services provided by Ironbark Lao’s Farm Services Unit; and sell their fruit to Ironbark Lao’s Harvest and Marketing Unit, using loans from the Ironbark Revolving Loan Fund, if required.