Small farmers reap benefits of Swiss crowdfunding boom

Would you pay in advance for something you’ve never seen if it’s for a good cause? Crowdfunding projects in Switzerland are giving Swiss consumers a taste for the exotic and helping small farmers find new markets.  Tobias Joos is sweaty and a bit out of breath. Nothing unusual for the part-time bike courier who delivers packages around Zurich city to supplement his income. But today is a bit different. Joos has a special delivery to make: ten boxes of spices from India that he sourced from small farmers through his crowdfunding project Crowd Container.  His team managed to raise almost CHF84,000 ($84,000) on Swiss crowdfunding platform Wemakeit through over 500 people who placed orders for a box of spices shipped directly from farmers in the India state of Kerala. Joos is no ordinary do-gooder. He studied international relations in Geneva and worked for two years at the consultancy firm Ernst & Young before finding his calling. Determined to do ...