Make an opportunity, solve a problem, part I
Mondays just fail to register for me when I don’t hear the stopwatch on Sunday evenings. I saw this segment on Plumpynut for the second time on 60 Minutes. I’m glad this topic has come around again, and felt just as dumbfounded as to why this is such a difficult problem to solve this time as I did the first time.
Quick Background
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Journalist-designed-to-attract-women-in-their-30s visits third world (complete with Prada-T) and interviews the Nobel Prize-winning relief group “Doctors Without Borders.”
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Every year, malnutrition kills five million children - that’s one child every six seconds.
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Dr. Milton Tectonidis, the chief nutritionist for Doctors Without Borders says Plumpynut is cheap, easy to make, and even easier to use.
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Plumpynut is a ready-to-eat, vitamin-enriched paste that has the capacity to serve like an essential medicine; in three weeks, a child that looked half dead can be cured.
The Problem
Mothers in these villages can’t produce enough milk themselves and can’t afford to buy it. Even if they could, they can’t store it — there’s no electricity, so no refrigeration. Powdered milk is useless because most villagers don’t have clean water.
The Solution
Plumpynut is simple: it is made of peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered sugar, and enriched with vitamins and minerals. It tastes like a peanut butter paste. It is very sweet, and because of that kids cannot get enough of it. The formula was developed by a nutritionist. It doesn’t need refrigeration, water, or cooking; mothers simply squeeze out the paste. Many children can even feed themselves. Each serving is the equivalent of a glass of milk and a multivitamin.
My Question
Given the simplicity of this product, why haven’t companies like Kraft, Nestle or Procter & Gamble…with their decades of knowledge in product management, manufacturing and global distribution not done something about this?
It’s those organizations that can secure a government contract, produce this kind of product at a low cost and distribute it. There is a market, it’s cheap, and the product will make money!!! What’s the deal?
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I would think that they haven’t engaged because there is not _enough_ money in this sort of venture. To me, it seems like a logical market creation activity. Make plumpynut, people eat it, they live, they work, they make money, and then they buy products. Sounds like a revectoring of the R&D budget towards the Plumpynut budget would make some sense.
Check this out:
http://www.plumpynutinthefield.com/eng/index-eng.php
Pepsico with their new CEO (Indian Lady) seems the most likely to support this sort of endeavor.
Why not start a non-profit who’s only goal is to raise money on the web, and distribute 95% of that money to local producers of Plumpynut? The other 5% would be to cover operational expenses.
It wouldn’t take a lot of USD to make a big difference…