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STAWI FOODS AND FRUITS LIMITED reduces farmers’ poverty and unemployment in Africa

1. Organizational Governance

Profit sharing

Context

Stawi Foods and Fruits Limited is an award winning food-processing business based in Nairobi, Kenya. Stawi Foods began as banana flour processing business in 2011. The company later diversified to offer two new products: Nurture Junior and Nurture Family. Currently there are 10 employees (of which 5 are full-time workers).
CEO Eric MUTHOMI observed that farmers in Kenya were investing heavily in banana farming only to end up disappointed by an oversupplied market or poor pay from middlemen. He thought farmers deserved better and he decided to launch a model of sustainable growth for those banana farmers in Kenya.

Objectives

  •  Breaking the cycle of poverty among smallholder farmers
  •  Helping farming families increase production in a sustainable way
  •  Fuelling employment for youth and smallholder farmers in order to eradicate poverty
  •  Improving nutrition and food security

APPROACH

Bananas are not available all year round which causes a huge volatility in price. A lot of farmers have their bananas harvest either wasted or sold with very poor yields. Lack of storage and processing facilities, bad roads and poor access to markets, also did not help to solve the problems.

Often, middlemen that buy bananas don’t think about farmers’ interests.
Farmers not only need buyers to purchase their bananas at responsible prices; but they also need a market for their product so as to avoid waste.

Eric Muthomi, CEO of Stawi Foods, wants to offer more value addition for farmers and to put an end to the model of middlemen, which serve their own interests. He completely redefines added value. Stawi Foods attempts to extract benefits for the banana surrounding farmers and to reconnect society. It addresses gender disparities by empowering women and helps farming families increase production in a sustainable way. It provides a market for small-scale farmers and increases the shelf life of bananas from one week to one year by turning them into flour.

Stawi Foods is becoming a popular brand, with a unique product, fairly serving the interests of stakeholders and it is successful in its task to create sustainable food-processing ventures.

Best Practice spotted by the World Forum for a Sustainable Economy 2014.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

  •  In medium-term, to develop in at least four other African countries (including Ghana, South Africa, Niger and Nigeria)
  •  Expectation until 300 employees
  •  Expected turnover for 2014: €6,000
  •  Top 30 under 30: Africa’s best young entrepreneurs, Forbes Africa, 2013
  •  National winner of Jitihada National Business Plan Competition 2012, Kenya Institute of Management, June 2012, Nairobi, Kenya

Benefits

  •  Avoid alimentary waste
  •  Work on innovative crops
  •  Empower women and youth
  •  Transfer of technology to small businesses in Africa
  •  Improve nutrition in countries
  •  Break the circle of poverty by paying fair prices and creating jobs
Workforce
10
Turnover
6000€
Country
Kenya

Contact

Eric Muthomi, DG This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mise à jour le 20/05/2016

Creative Commons Attribution This work by Réseau Alliances – World Forum Lille is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.