La Rioja Alta to support African farming initiatives

Spanish estate La Rioja Alta has said it will contribute €130,000 this year to farming projects in Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo and the Caribbean island of Haiti.

The money will be donated as part of the winery’s ‘Viña Ardanza Solidario’ programme which was set up in 2007 and sees the winery donate 1% of its annual profits to agricultural initiatives in developing countries.

So far the programme has raised €1.1 million for various projects in Cameroon, Mali, Benin, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Guatemala and India among others.

This year’s beneficiaries will include the Baka pygmy people of southern Cameroon, families in Meyer, Haiti, the Sababougnoumain rural enterprise in Banfora in Burkina Faso and Don Bosco Mbuji Mayi project in DR Congo.

La Rioja Alta’s director, Maite de Aranzabal, commented that this year, as well as the contribution from the estate itself, the programme would, “also be open all year to the personal contributions of shareholders, directors, employees or other companies, whether with links to the company or otherwise.”

She added: “Although we continue to launch and collaborate with very interesting initiatives in very needy places, there is unfortunately still much work to be done and many people to help and train.”