Dar es Salaam – Wednesday 15th July
AGRIinsight announces major commercial partnerships with Tanzanian and Kenya based partners completing the digitisation of their rice supply chain. The company can now offer a full digital farm to fork service that allows smallholders to connect directly with large urban markets.
“We are excited to be working in partnership with AGRIinsight’” says Mr Abdallah Mnende, CEO of Green & Digital Solutions of Dar es Salaam. “The Ubia Soko platform with its multi-service approach is an excellent tool to help us meet our goals of direct marketing and reliable, cost effective food distribution to customers. We are now able to offer a good quality branded rice product at a competitive price direct to our wide consumer base in Dar. For us this is a gamechanger.”
The second partnership concluded today is with Kaputei Ltd a premium food and condiments company supplying both online and direct to supermarkets and hotel kitchens in Kenya. Mrs Emma Achoki, Managing Director at Kaputei noted that “Kenya is an excellent market in which to sell Kilombero rice. Tanzanian rice especially has a superior taste and quality compared to the predominantly imported basmati rice in Kenya. Rice is a close fit for Kaputei, and distribution is our passion. We are really looking forward to working with AGRIinsight and its partners.”
AGRIinsight – the UK founded, Africa focused, Tanzanian based company is working with its local partners developing a full digital farm-to-fork service. The partnership is offering smallholder farmers with a much-needed services in the form of direct access to large consumer bases as well as access to fertilizer, seeds, storage and finance.
Mihayo Wilmore – Director at AGRIinsight Tanzania Ltd said that “the change in consumer demand had been gradual. However, over the past few months we have seen a change brought on by the pandemic. There has been a rapid uptake by urban populations to online ordering and delivery of food particularly bulkier items like rice.”
AGRIinsight has therefore extended their partnership to include Green & Digital Solutions and Kaputei Ltd, both food distribution companies. This collaboration successfully links production and aggregation to the consumer.
Diclukala Ltd, an AGRIinsight core partner and one of the largest rice traders and processors in the Southern Highlands is a strong advocate in the use of digital solutions to support farmers access to services. Mr Dickson Lukala Managing Director sees the importance of offering digital solutions to farmers. “I see Ubia Soko not only helping my company to support sales aggregation but also to help us arrange for safer engagement with individual farmers. Digital is now helping me with another important element of my work with farmers.”
Diclukala is therefore combining their rice purchasing activities from farmers with registration using AGRIinsight’s Ubia Soko application. By doing so farmers gain access to essential digital services.
Mark Magila, Program Coordinator of ACT’s Tanzania Agricultural Partnership is also proud to be a supporter and partner in the rollout of AGRIinsight’s Ubia Soko application. “We see this as an important step in connecting farmers to major markets,” he said. “One of our main goals under a Norwegian Government/Norad financed programme is to help facilitate sustainable and scalable market access for smallholders. We have helped Ubia Soko facilitate early stage training and farmer registration and introductions to traders. This is a great step forward.”
The application is the first of a suite of demand driven tools being developed by AGRIinsight and its partners. AGRIinsight is also working closely with fertilizer and seed companies to provide a full digital procurement service to farmers. Integrating a mobile money service into Ubia Soko means that the company can also provide contactless money transfer to farmers.
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