Twiga Foods pumps Sh1.2 billion in onion, tomato value chain
Business-to-business marketing company Twiga Foods has spun out a new subsidiary, Twiga Fresh, where it plans to scale the production of fresh foods in a Kes1.2 billion ($10 million) investment.
Twiga Foods sources a range of farm produce directly from farmers and helps deliver it to retailers in urban settings.
The firm said Twiga Fresh will focus on modern and commercial farming to help supply informal retailers and urban consumers with lower costs, better quality, and safe food.
The financing will see Twiga Fresh step up the production of onions, tomatoes, and watermelons, significantly lowering the cost.
The investment in Kenya will make this one of the largest single horticultural farms in Africa, focused purely on the domestic market.
Twiga Fresh says in the long term it will be funded through debt in partnership with development financial institutions, focused on primary agriculture and food security.
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For specific value chains that are locally well established and efficient, like bananas, Twiga Foods will continue to work with smallholder farmers in addressing the challenge of food security.
“We will continue to run the B2B e-commerce business under Twiga, focused on building a one-stop supply-chain solution for informal retailers, delivering both Twiga and non-Twiga owned products. Twiga Fresh, in addition to our growing range of private label products, will ensure we drive growth in customer numbers and broaden the basket size by offering quality products at a discount against prevailing market prices,” said Peter Njonjo, CEO and co-founder of Twiga.
“The commodity-driven volatility in the world today is causing an unprecedented level of food inflation across the world. In Africa, we can least afford this disruption, and that is why we are excited about the imminent impact our technology-enabled supply chain will have in reducing the cost of food,” he added.
To launch the Twiga Fresh line of products, the company shall sample one million Kilograms of fresh produce to customers under our 21-day promotion by the name of “Bidhaa Freshi na Safi” that commences on the 23rd of May 2022.
We shall deliver the produce at no cost to the door of every retailer who participates across the sixteen cities and towns we operate in Kenya, the company noted. This will also help boost working capital in their businesses.
Food accounts for close to 60 percent of household expenditure across major cities in Africa. However, the last few months have been particularly difficult for the retail business and for consumers as disposable income has taken a beating from both the COVID pandemic and the increasing commodity inflation caused by the war in Ukraine.
