Supply Chain Management

Case Study
Twiga - A B2B Agritech Startup's Innovative Solution to Improve Food Security in Kenya

Article Details

Pub. Date	: Dec 2023
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJSCM031223
Author Name	: K B S Kumar and Indu Perepu
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Strategic
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 20

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Abstract

Twiga, a mobile-based B2B tech platform, supplies fresh fruits and vegetables sourced from farmers in rural Kenya directly to small and medium-sized vendors and to kiosks known as Mama Mobgas in Nairobi. It was founded by Grant Brooke, a US-based researcher, and Peter Njojo, who was with Coca-Cola Africa, to address the issues plaguing the fresh produce supply chain in Kenya. Twiga linked the informal vendors to the farmers through its proprietary cashless mobile technology platform. It matched the supply from small-scale farmers with the demand from vendors, procured fresh produce from the farmers, and organized efficient supply chains with the help of logistics and warehouse platforms to have the orders delivered to the vendors. In the process, Twiga eliminated the middlemen, minimized post-harvest losses, and lowered the price of the fresh produce. Twiga's highly scalable and replicable model created a manifold impact and was expected to help in fixing Kenya's economy by controlling food prices and reducing the share of disposable income that people spent on food (which was 45%). Twiga's model was found to be highly suitable for addressing the challenges of food insecurity, food safety, and food inflation across the world.

Twiga is a strong example of how to seize a huge opportunity-addressing both the inefficiencies in wholesale fresh fruit and vegetable markets and poor last mile solutions both for farmers and vendors-and how tech and data can help significantly improve living standards.1

- Ory Okolloh, Director of Investments, Omidyar Network

Ultimately, by improving the food delivery chains, Twiga Foods will raise food security on the continent and will help unlock the urban African consumables market which is approaching $1 tn in annual value.2.

- Brigit van Dijk-van de Reijt, CEO of DOB Equity

The best thing about the Twiga model is that it is a big win for Africa's shop keepers, for Africa's farmers, for local FMCG manufacturers, and governments dealing with skyrocketing food prices amidst rapid urbanization.3

- Grant Brooke, former CEO and Co-Founder, Twiga

Introduction

As of 2019, agriculture accounted for 26% of Kenya's GDP and 75% of the entire workforce. However, poverty was rampant among small and marginal rural farmers. These farmers faced a huge challenge in taking the fresh produce to markets in urban areas where demand was high. At the other end of the chain were the consumers, who paid as much as consumers, in developed markets did for fruits and vegetables4. The two major problems in the Kenyan agri-business value chain were a high rate of wastage leading to high prices and a lack of effective distribution. These were the issues that attracted the attention of Grant Brooke (Brooke), a social economist from the US, who was in Kenya for a research study.

Brooke partnered with Peter Njonjo (Njonjo), a Kenyan working for the Coca-Cola Company as President of West and Central Africa Business Unit5. The duo wanted to address the inefficiencies that existed in the highly fragmented fresh produce market in Africa. In 2014, they incorporated Twiga Foods Ltd. (Twiga) as a B2B marketplace that sourced produce from farmers and delivered it to informal retailers, who accounted for more than 90% of the retail in Kenya.

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