In Ethiopia, the partnership between Damascene Essential Oil Company and 2SCALE continues to empower smallholder herbs and spice producers to commercialize their agribusiness ventures. As the company seeks to diversify and expand its range of products, it also aims to scale up the number of spices/herbs producers who form its supply base to over 5,000 smallholder female producers in Southwest Ethiopia. Currently, the company has two retail outlets in Debrezit town as well as three processing facilities located in Addis Ababa, Mizan and Bonga towns.
As the number of producers is increasing, it has led to a rise in the administrative work required to manage transactions, payments, and communications. Furthermore, Damascene is continually establishing business relationships with buyers supplying to domestic, regional, and international markets, which are all managed manually. With the increase in daily operations and need for efficiency, there is a need to shift to an efficient system that ensures traceability and transparency along the entire value chain. Ms. Rahel Heruy the Managing Director of Damascene explains:
Damascene used to run its daily operations manually. With no proper organizational systematic setup, it was challenging to efficiently manage the increasing workflows from sourcing raw produce from smallholder farmers, logistics, managing our inventory, line of processes, products, sales, and customers. As our supply base is growing, we also saw a need to easily communicate with our female producers-who are also growing in number. To resolve, this challenge, we requested support from 2SCALE to facilitate the set up of a robust and efficient Supply Chain Management System that responds to our diversified needs.
Designing and delivering a new management digital solution
ETHIO SHARES company is an ICT business service provider in Ethiopia. It is a woman-led company, owned and managed by Ms. Rahel Tesfaye. This young entrepreneur was one of the Ethiopian women traders trained in the AYA program supported by 2SCALE. The company provides software design, development, and implementation services.
In June 2021, ethioshares.com Supply Chain Management System was rolled out to Damascene. This is a digital solution designed to improve supply chain management in companies such as Damascene. It can obtain real-time information about the volume and type of spices and herbs Damascene has procured. It also takes into account inputs supply, the production situation, raw materials supplied by smallholder farmers, raw materials aggregated at the operator’s warehouse, products processed, stored, and sales data. The system also creates transparency among partners, which is essential in developing trust. With such a digital supply management system, the management of Damascene Essential Oil PLC is bound to make more informed decisions to better coordinate the value chain.
Ms. Rahel Tesfaye-the Managing Director of EthioShares explains more about the system:
EthioShares SCMS (Supply Chain Management System) is an agricultural supply chain Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) system in Ethiopia. It is a cloud-based system that optimizes agricultural processing procedures, streamlines supply chains, and links farmers directly to the market, among other things. It will offer Damascene benefits such as bringing efficiency in their business, as it will enable the company to better manage demand, carry the right amount of inventory, and keep costs to a minimum to meet customer demand in the most effective way possible.