RENEW Strategies

This SME contracts agriculture production form 10,000 smallhold farmers in Western Kenya. The SME then sells and trades the agriculture products in large orders to buyers in Kenya, South Africa, Asia and Europe. The SME provides training to the 10,000 farmers and linkages to export-oriented seed varietals that might not be locally available.

The business processes cereal grains such as maize, soya beans, millet, groundnuts, simsim, rice, into a wide range of food products, including cereal, beverages, and ingredients for other high-nutrition foods.

Grains processed by the business are currently sold at comparatively low prices throughout Uganda, helping increase the nutrition and health of the population. Locally processed natural foods help alleviate nutritional shortages, cost less for the poor to purchase, and add value to raw crops, benefiting the local economy and improving Uganda’s trade balance.

The opportunity seeks to provide market-driven, wealth creating financial services throughout the agricultural value chain, with a specific social mission of improving the lives of rural smallhold farmers. The opportunity currently creates direct and indirect income through asset financing for an estimated 7000 Kenyans, 46% of them women with a current repayment rate of 92%. The opportunity has the potential to benefit 25,000 small hold farmers and and 200 rural enterprises.

The SME processes high-value crops into finished organic products and seeks investment to finance the purchase of raw vanilla and cocoa from farmers and to build improved processing stations and dryers. The SME buys products directly from 1,000 small farmers, much of which comes from the formerly war-torn North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The revenue created for the farmers and technical assistance provided by this business offer hope to devastated communities and displaced people returning to their homes for the first time after years in refugee camps

The SME is a farmer-led association to facilitate training and assistance to other members on best practices and trade marketing. The opportunity has received international recognition for improving crop yield and farmer productivity, while increasing the quality of crops. The association utilizes a number of technology-driven market tools to increase the profits of members by maximizing sale price.

The business produces high-quality seeds and seedlings which it sells to local farmers, who benefit through higher yields. This raises income and increases the amount of locally-grown food available in the market. The business also operates a research lab which employs skilled labor to continuously improve the quality of the product, benefiting the business and passing these benefits to the rural farmers who purchase seedlings. Additional capital is required to expand production and operations and hire additional Ugandan employees.

The SME seeks investment to increase its production of chicken feed and other products. The business has achieved high turnover of its chicken feed. However, due to the variability of maize prices management seeks capital investment in order to purchase maize in bulk. This will position the business to increase its maize supply when prices are low and allow the business to meet increasing demand from farmers.

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