Faced with the difficulties of sourcing from smallholder farmers
For reasons related to product quality, as well as agreeing on purchase and sale price, the business champion Canaan Land had difficulty sourcing from farmers in the various agricultural clusters included in the partnership. Indeed, in its sales strategy, Canaan Land does not directly target low-income consumers. Its business is rather oriented towards niche markets that have a certain requirement in terms of quality.
As for the farmers, the crops being already harvested, they had no other possibility to sell their products, since they were relying on the market that Canaan Land represented for them. Thus, 2SCALE undertook a strategy of reorientation of the producers' groups in order to find other outlets under the coordination of the Business Support Service (SAE) which accompanies the actors in the field.
In the same process, 2SCALE approached BAYER, an input supplier and also a major actor in the partnership, through its smallholder inclusion program called "Smallholder Farming Project". This project is designed to include women in the value chain in a production and marketing process. BAYER positioned itself as the main buyer in the different production areas.
CanaanLand products to BoP markets
In essence, this partnership was intended to facilitate access to quality fresh produce for low-income consumers. However, with all the difficulties mentioned above, this objective was far from being achieved. With the gradual phasing out of 2SCALE from this partnership in 2022, the stakeholders requested support to carry out a study to develop the distribution channel for women resellers in the informal market for the champion and for women in the cooperatives.
For this reason, during the first quarter of 2022, a market study was conducted with the objective of mapping the key players in marketing to BoP consumers; identifying the best product offering in terms of variety, quality, price and presentation; and understanding the appetite of retailers.
says Patricia Zoundi Yao, Promoter of CanaanLand.
The survey was conducted among 304 sellers of onions, tomatoes, eggplant, chili peppers, cucumbers, lettuce and zucchini in 38 markets in the communes of Cocody, Marcory and Yopougon in Abidjan. More than 5,900 fresh vegetable vendors were identified in the 38 markets visited. This mapping gives a new impetus to the activities of the partnership according to the champion.
As a reminder, this partnership aims to supply 15,000 BoP consumers with healthy, locally grown fresh vegetables from at least 6,000 producers by 2023.