April 26, 2019

Meet Tsehay Multipurpose Farmers’ Cooperative Union: one of the successful 2018 pilots to be developed into a full-fledged partnership

Soy and Oil Seeds

Ethiopia

One of the successful pilots of 2SCALE is Tsehay Multipurpose Farmers’ Cooperative Union, an oil seeds value chain champion with more than 120,000 smallholder farmers (with 27,703 female farmers) based in Gondar Town in Amhara Region, Northern Ethiopia. The Tsehay partnership is actually the first proposed to the external selection committee. If and when the committee approves the partnership proposal, the collaboration with Tsehay will transition from a pilot to a full partnership; thereby, becoming the first new partnership under the second phase of 2SCALE.

Previously Tsehay used to aggregate raw materials, sourcing them only from nearby farmers of Central Gondar Zone. The union has now set up an oil processing factory and under its second phase, 2SCALE is helping them to scale up sourcing raw materials from Northern and Southern Gondar zones, with the aim to reach an additional 30,000 smallholder farmers in five years.

2SCALE has been providing various forms of assistance such as helping smallholder farmers increase their productivity, improving efficiency of the management of the factory and the distribution of cooking oil to the low-income (BoP) consumers.

2SCALE has also helped them overcome the challenge of accessing finance by linking Tsehay with Rabobank Foundation in The Netherlands which has granted a loan of $260,000 for the purchase of oilseed stocks in bulk for processing.

As a final element of its inclusive business strategy, Tsehay Union, is poised to distribute healthy cooking oil to BoP consumers and will be instrumental in providing a decent income for marginalized farmers.

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