Sol Simple

Will Burke, founder and CEO of Sol Simple, Sol Organica, and Burke Agro de Nicaragua, moved to Nicaragua in 1997 to teach English Literature classes at the American School in Managua. There he met his wife, MarÌa. Will and MarÌa later moved to Boulder to get their Master's Degrees at the University of Colorado and then went to Venezuela, where they taught at the American School of that country. During a trip back to Nicaragua to visit MarÌa's family, they noticed mangos on the ground everywhere, going to waste. MarÌa and Will commented on the great opportunity that farmers would have if could sell their fruit abroad, transformed into finished products. People in Boulder loved dried mango! Years later, when the situation in Venezuela worsened, Will and MarÌa decided to return to live in Nicaragua. They started brainstorming about opportunities related to education. Will decided to seek support to educate farmers on how to access the US market in order to diversify their incomes and improve their livelihoods. As a result, in 2007, Will founded Burke Agro de Nicaragua, the fruit processing and agricultural development company, and Sol Simple, the retail and bulk dried fruit brand. Through many challenges, the dedication of farmers, technical assistance and training in quality organic production, Burke Agro / Sol Simple grew from working with 5 smallholder farmers to working with more than 1,200 mango, dragon fruit, banana, pineapple, coconut and passion fruit growers and became the first company in the world to successfully develop Regenerative Organic CertifiedÆ (ROC) fruit. Sol Organica was created and incorporated into the Sol Simple / Burke Agro family in 2018, becoming the processing and exporting company, while Burke Agro continues working with smallholder farmers. As well as dried fruit, today Sol Organica processes fruit purees and juices, frozen fruit chunks, fruit powders and flours, and oils. Sol Simple is a vertically-integrated B Corp with a direct presence in each step in the supply chain, providing full traceability and transparency while elevating the positive environmental and social impact in the value chains that it develops.