Direct Trade

80% of rice farmers earn less than minimum wage

...because current supply chains benefit middlemen not farmers.

During sale, farmers face a convoluted supply chain with multiple middlemen which results in lower prices for their products and also exponentially increases the food miles on every bag of rice.

Paddi rice helps farmers fix the supply chain one step at the time.

Paddi farmers get connected to markets directly, ensuring they benefit the most from their products.

Featured story

Empowering Malaysian heritage rice farmers

Sabah, Malaysia

For generations, farmers in Sabah, Malaysia have grown over 300 varieties of traditional artisanal rice for consumption and sale. These varieties are unique heritage rice that are naturally grown, more nutritious and have interesting tastes, textures and colours.

Retail prices and demand for these varieties are especially high in urban cities, with prices reaching up to 10x normal rice prices. Unfortunately, farmers only capture a fraction of the final price due to a lack of access to urban, high value markets and having little choice but to sell to middlemen at low prices.

The paddi impact

We work with local community partners to connect these farmers directly to high value markets in the region like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. We establish the most direct supply chain possible reducing both inefficiencies and food miles. This allows us to pay farmers fairer ethical prices that are higher than current supply chain prices.

Furthermore, we also help ensure proper transportation, packaging and branding to ensure their rice is market ready.

You can check out or get some heritage rice here (available in Malaysia only)

For the past 3 months, we’ve helped over 40 rice farming families in Sabah get connected to buyers in the cities helping them sell off 60% of their available rice at significantly higher prices than local rates. We’ve received requests from other villages and communities and hope to expand to more villages in the coming harvest.