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VIDEO: Linking smallholder farmers to markets

20 October 2016

Farm Africa’s CEO, Nicolas Mounard, has outlined the mutual benefits of bridging the gap between global food companies and small-scale food producers in rural Africa.

In an interview with Food Matters Live, an annual event focused on nutrition, health and sustainability in the food and drink sector, Nicolas spoke about Farm Africa’s work linking smallholder farmers in eastern Africa to regional, national and export markets.

By reaching beyond local markets and securing higher prices for their produce, African farmers such as coffee growers, horticultural producers and fish farmers can benefit from a regular and secure income.

Meanwhile, by sourcing from smallholders, global food companies can secure produce that is not only high quality, but also fulfils the growing consumer demand for full traceability. 

Nicolas explained how these relationships can be built:

“We’re working with the retail industry, examining what kind of fully traceable supply chains we can develop for them. We sit down with them and ask what kind of products they are looking to source from eastern Africa. And we start from that, get their needs in terms of quality, traceability, quality control, and also in terms of corporate social responsibility policy. And we try to match both and do the job for them.

“We’re really ambitious in this area – we’d like to develop all kinds of different fully traceable to smallholder value chains for the retail and food industry.”

Farm Africa will be at Food Matters Live from 22-24 November. To find out more about partnership opportunities with Farm Africa, please contact Charlotte Senior at corporate@farmafrica.org

 

 

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