Farming with Purpose: How Agriculture Is Changing Lives in Zimbabwe

At Tanaka, farming is more than a business, it’s a mission. As a Zimbabwean-first, family-led brand, we grow our own pecans and reinvest in local communities to build a more ethical, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural future.

We believe farming can be a force for good: a way to restore dignity, create livelihoods, and unlock long-term opportunity. That’s why we farm with purpose, rooted in people, powered by community.

A Model Rooted in Community

Tanaka’s approach centres on ethical growing, social investment, and long-term impact. While we cultivate our own pecans on Zimbabwean soil, we also work closely with local communities to share knowledge, train emerging farmers, and create platforms for shared growth.

Our profits aren’t just used to scale our business, they’re used to invest back into the very communities we grow alongside. This model helps ensure that the benefits of agriculture go beyond the field.

This is social impact agriculture, done the Zimbabwean way.

Real Impact on the Ground

Through Tanaka’s training sessions, mentoring, and community reinvestment, we’ve seen first-hand how farming can transform lives.

In rural areas where farming is often a means of survival, access to practical skills and consistent support is opening new pathways for growth. Women are starting their own small orchards. Youth are learning sustainable techniques. Families are producing more, wasting less, and thinking long-term.

Some community members have formed informal cooperatives to share tools, resources, and ideas. Others have gone from growing for subsistence to selling their surplus at local markets, with support from Tanaka’s team and training partners.

These aren’t isolated moments, they’re part of a broader, growing movement to make community farming in Zimbabwe more resilient, inclusive, and economically viable.

Beyond the Orchard: Our Wider Impact

As growers ourselves, we understand the challenges farmers face. That’s why part of our purpose is to use our experience and our success, to empower others.

By reinvesting profits into community projects, Tanaka is helping to deliver:

  • Training in sustainable practices

  • Support for women and young farmers

  • Access to basic tools and growing space

  • Food security for families

  • Leadership and cooperative development

This is what sustainable farming in Zimbabwe looks like: shared learning, collective progress, and impact that grows with each season.

A Vision for Community Agriculture

Our long-term vision is to see more communities benefiting from ethical agriculture, where success is measured not just in yields, but in lives improved.

We're building a future where:

  • Smallholder farmers have access to knowledge and markets

  • Youth see farming as a viable, respected career path

  • Communities thrive through self-reliance and cooperation

  • Farming becomes a tool for positive social and economic change

How You Can Support

Whether you’re a conscious consumer, food buyer, or advocate of social impact agriculture, you can be part of this movement.

Here’s how to get involved:

  • Buy ethically sourced products like our Zimbabwean pecans

  • Share our story and spread awareness

  • Partner with us on training or community investment projects

  • Sign up to stay connected: tanakazim.org/stay-in-touch

Together, we can grow more than just food.

We can grow futures.

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How We Farm: A Closer Look at Our Sustainable Practices

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From Zimbabwe to Your Table: The Journey of Our Pecans