The Pineapple Business in West Africa
Given the rising demand for fresh pineapples and related goods in domestic and international markets, the pineapple sector in West Africa offers numerous commercial opportunities. The top five producers in the area are Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Togo. 2019 saw fresh pineapple exports to the European Union bring in about $66.9 million for West Africa. Traditional variations like the Pain de Sucre (Sugarloaf), which has a long shelf life, have acquired favor in local and regional markets even if the variety MD2, recognized for its long shelf life, is the most popular for export.
Zambia’s expanding market for processed foods
According to Tue Nyboe Andersen, managing director of Kukula Capital in Lusaka, Zambia’s indigenous production of processed food goods that are currently imported offers promising potential. “I believe that niche items with little competition offer the best chances for processed food products. Zambia has certain inherent import restrictions because it is a landlocked nation and imports require extensive transportation. For instance, a company by the name of Meraki makes cakes and sells them to major supermarkets like Shoprite. Due to its competitors’ significantly more expensive imported products, it has expanded quickly while maintaining respectable margins. Few foods are processed in Zambia, and many goods are imported.
According to Andersen, the potential market for food items includes not only Zambia but also the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Katanga region (DRC). Due to the scarcity of commercial farmers in the region, Zambia provides the majority of the food for the entire southern DRC. The market consists of the 18 million residents of Zambia as well as the territory of Katanga, bringing the overall population close to 30 million.
Solving transportation and storage challenges
There are several gaps in the supply of transport and logistical services to Africa’s food and agriculture sectors. According to Mark Sproston, CEO of the food distribution business GET IT, there is a possible business opportunity in Rwanda due to the lack of commercial refrigeration vehicles. Small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe can use the inexpensive electric tricycles from Mobility for Africa to go around, and OX Delivers in Rwanda runs a fleet of off-road electric vehicles that clients can reserve space on to move items across rural areas.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that more than 40% of food perishes before it reaches customers, there is also a considerable demand for cold storage and warehousing solutions. African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) recently created Commercial Cold Holdings in response to this, with the intention of developing it into a pan-African cold chain logistics platform with a network of temperature-controlled warehouses in significant demand hubs and food production regions.
Additionally, there are several enterprises in Africa that offer farmers, market vendors, and small businesses cold storage options. For instance, Koolboks, a 2018 startup in Nigeria, sells off-grid solar coolers and freezers that can maintain a cool temperature for up to four days without electricity or sunshine. Pay-as-you-go technology has been incorporated by Koolboks to lower the price of the devices. Another Nigerian business, ColdHubs, runs solar-powered storage rooms and offers smallholder farmers and market vendors a pay-as-you-store service for fresh products. Customers pay 200 Nigerian naira (about $0.50) to store fresh vegetables in a 20kg crate for one day. Each unit can contain three tonnes of food.
Africa’s agricultural sector Digital Disruption
According to Brian Waswani Odhiambo, a partner at venture capital firm Novastar Ventures, agtech is a promising market in Africa. iProcure, a Kenyan platform connecting agricultural input manufacturers to regional agro-dealers who supply small-scale farmers, and Trotro Tractor, an Uber-like service connecting farmers to tractors in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, are a few examples of agtech solutions. Zowasel, a digital marketplace connecting small-scale farmers and buyers in Nigeria, is another example. Farmers can request a tractor within 72 hours or make a reservation in advance for a specific day on the site, which now includes 65,000 farmers and 3,200 tractors. Tractor owners must pay a charge to use the service.
Source: How we made it in Africa