Free Trade NGO leader visits & shares experience with Portuguese food producers

In Loco, a development agency based in São Brás de Alportel, Portugal and other local partners hosted an in-person session with Mathew John, a leading international practitioner in product development and marketing on Monday, 23 March 2026.

He popped up to my place and we chatted about honey, beeswax and lip balm. He was on his way to a conference in Andorra.

“I’m pondering small business resilience in places like Portugal, where I would like to learn from SMEs.  Do they show fewer insolvencies, stronger investment confidence, are they able to focus on innovation despite volatility? How do they balance producer value generation at small scales? Constant pivots are tough without scale. I am curious about local Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)/honey models for lessons on weathering shocks.”

Mathew John is one of the founders of India’s Keystone Foundation and has led the organisation for over 30 years. He now heads Last Forest Enterprises, which links indigenous communities across 150+ villages in the Kotagiri/Nilgiris area of Tamil Nadu to local and international markets.

Last Forest manages the full supply chain for organic, fair-trade forest products including sustainably harvested honey, beeswax items, spices and millets distributed through 100+ outlets and certified under World Fair Trade Organisation standards. Mathew also serves as head of IFOAM Organics for the Asia region.

Last Forest’s experience in indigenous food production has diversifed into wellness products.

Mathew focused his discussion on:

Quality standards for cultivation and harvesting
Product conservation and transit logistics
Investment in processing equipment
Marketing and distribution support systems
Creating consumer interest in product categories and wellbeing trendsStrategies for entering new markets

He described the uncertainties of relying on wild-harvested goods, staffing and capacity challenges he encounters when expanding to international markets. He was eager to learn from local Algarve/Alentejo producers regarding insolvency rates, investment confidence, innovation, capacity, and small-scale value generation.

Get in contact with Mathew John via Last Forest