The partnership between Ladipo & Lawani Foods and 2SCALE is enhancing the production, distribution, and availability of aflatoxin-free groundnuts sourced from smallholder farmers while developing affordable and nutritious products for Base of the Pyramid (BoP) consumers in Nigeria. One such product is Mr. Ekpa peanut burger, a snack making great strides in the food processing sector in Lagos state and its environs.
L&L foods is a local food processor in the groundnut value chain with an inclusive business focus. It sources groundnuts from smallholder farmers and their grassroots networks. As part of its inclusive agribusiness agenda, L&L has prioritized availing safe, nutritious, and affordable groundnut snacks to BoP consumers.
Introducing Mr. Ekpa to BoP markets
BoP consumers are low-income consumers who earn less than 2 dollars per day which is an equivalent of 866 naira. 2SCALE works with business champions like L&L to provide this consumer segment with accessible, nutritious, and affordable food products. In order to achieve this, 2SCALE conducted a market study/consumer insight study in 2020 to understand the target customers’ needs. Based on the result of this study, it was gathered that a product that is accessible, well packaged, has a good taste, is easily distributed and supplied, and also affordable, is the product consumers need.
Before the partnership with 2SCALE, L&L had rolled out a groundnut-based product in the market but they experienced very low acceptability from consumers due to the taste which was a result of the recipe used to prepare the nuts leading to low sales.
In order to improve the recipe of the product, 2SCALE empowered L&L by engaging a consultant-food scientist to aid L&L in reviewing and reformulating the product. The improved product was tested for its nutritional value before being rebranded, repackaged, and reintroduced into the market.
2SCALE also co-founded a market activation which took place in August 2021. This helped to create awareness of the improved peanut burger. As a result, Mr. Ekpa has so far reached 17,755 BoP consumers. Right now, the present demand for the product has grown far beyond the factory’s installed production capacity of 3 tons to 10 tons daily.
Changing the perception of consumers was a bit challenging because many consumers did not trust the taste of the product due to their experience with the previous peanut burger. Initially, the consumers found it difficult to trust the brand again but with the introduction of freebies and free tasting, the BoP consumers have embraced the product because the taste and quality is better and the price is still affordable. Each pack goes for N50 ($0.11) for 50 grams, which is quite affordable. So far, the average revenue from 0.52 tons sold in 2022r is N1,240,000 ($2814).