The origin story
What follows is here because the questions in it are not unusual — only the circumstances are.
Switzerland
Patrick Struebi never set out to build a social enterprise.
A successful corporate career, and a life that by every external measure was going well. The kind of life that is difficult to leave precisely because nothing is visibly wrong with it.
A mine in Peru
Deep inside a mine, an unexpected realisation: that his work was contributing to a system making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Not an abstraction — something he could see.
That moment changed the direction of his life.
Mexico
He walked away from the career, the country, and the security of a life that seemed well established, and travelled to Mexico with no plan, no job, and no certainty.
There he met smallholder farmers living in poverty while cultivating exceptional organic avocados that commanded strong prices in international markets. How could people producing such valuable products remain trapped in poverty? That question became the starting point.
Although he knew neither the country, the language, the culture, nor the agricultural sector, he chose to act.
Across Latin America
What began as an attempt to create the world’s first global supply chain for organic Fairtrade avocados grew into a social enterprise spanning Latin America, connecting tens of thousands of smallholder farmers to international markets.
Years of working alongside farming communities, teaching social innovation, and navigating uncertainty, failure and discovery — which is where this book comes from.
But this isn’t the story of Fairtrasa.
It’s proof that extraordinary journeys often begin with one ordinary decision.
