A commitment to serve Malagasy communities
On the Serdex site, Seppic extracts and purifies wesourceTM cosmetic and pharmaceutical botanical active ingredients from plants harvested in Madagascar.
Over 40 years of commitment
A pioneer in the implementation of benefit-sharing best practices towards local communities surrounding plant collection for four decades, Serdex has been an active member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) since 2008. Since its creation, respecting traditional know-how, improving the living conditions of local populations, and ensuring that our local suppliers become increasingly competent in terms of social responsibility, by even reaching the plant collection areas, have been at the heart of Serdex’s sustainable development.
During our last membership audit in 2017, 95% of UEBT membership obligations were met (a public summary is available upon request to our customers and suppliers at contact-serdex@airliquide.com), reflecting one of Centella asiatica's most complete and developed supply chains in Madagascar.
Examples of actions with local communities
In Madagascar today, nearly 3,000 pickers benefit from Serdex's supply chain, and local partners ensure quality control and traceability thanks to the transfer of expertise.
Serdex and its partners are committed to improving the living conditions of the communities where the harvesters live, particularly by providing infrastructural support for education. With the support of its customers, Serdex contributes to:
- Schooling initiatives: over five classrooms per year have been built on average since 2003, accommodating 2,880 students a year with three school libraries, hundreds of school kits (480 in 2019) distributed to students and six scholarships for middle school to college
- Nutrition and health initiatives, with participation in nutrition programs (12 ongoing programs), well construction (six in 2019), and providing support to several health centers through the construction of new buildings, the renovation and purchase of medical equipment, and capacity-building training for 20 teachers in six schools.
- Skills-building initiatives, with individualized allocations to pickers and textbook donations, teacher training, research and production equipment donations, and a contribution to an industrialization project with its main local partner.
In 2019, the Air Liquide Foundation also supported a project by Serdex's non-governmental organization partner in Madagascar. This project built a pre-school classroom in a public primary school in the village of Ambodiriana. The availability of suitable buildings, together with teaching materials will improve the welcoming and teaching conditions for schoolchildren. Parents then become more inclined to send their children to school.
Key figures (achievements 2003-2019)
