A trio from KSA, namely Bakary Touray, Kalifa Saho and Lamin Touray (Lang2) were in Marlborough last night to attend a fairtrade event organised by the Wiltshire Fairtrade Association. The theme of the meeting was "Mangoes from Gunjur to Marlborough". The keynote speaker was Baai Jabang, director of TARUD and a member of a consortium tasked to produce a business plan for the project.  

The aim is to secure funding and establish a factory in Gunjur to process Mangoes and add value to ultimately benefit the mango farmers of the Gambia. Dr Nick Maurice referred to it as a "gold mine" taking into account the opportunity to farmers in terms of income, employment and sustenance.  

Baai Jabang made a beautiful PowerPoint presentation of the project and urged everyone to contribute to its success. As a result, a group of young people from schools in Wiltshire will be traveling to Gunjur at the end of August to among other things research about barriers to exporting Gambian mangoes to the UK and their findings will be contained in a book to be published. Earlier this afternoon at the house of chairman Buba Kasong Barrow, members of KSA together with TAURD Director Bai Jabang and Dr Nick Maurice who was accompanied by Joanna met to look into what help KSA can bring to the project.