Entrepreneur taps into international demand for local food products

Fafali Azaglo based Selasie Farms and Groceries, a food processing and packaging firm in Ghana, greater than twenty years in the past. Over the years, the enterprise has produced totally different products based mostly on market demand, discovering success in powdered or dehydrated genuine Ghanaian favourites resembling banku combine (a mix of fermented maize and cassava dough), hausa koko (a spicy millet porridge), akyeke (a grated and fermented cassava aspect dish), and kokonte (dried cassava flour). Jeanette Clark spoke to Azaglo about how she constructed the enterprise and entered the export market.

Follow the demand

Selasie Farms and Groceries was based in 1997 after Azaglo determined to maneuver away from major agricultural manufacturing into agro-processing. In the years prior – from 1992 up till 1996 – she had run a combined farming enterprise that included poultry rearing, a piggery, and the cultivation of maize and cassava.

In the transition, Azaglo used crops from her personal farm to course of into standard products and promote on the excessive streets of Accra. Customers generally requested particular gadgets and if she didn’t have them, Azaglo sourced the components from market sellers, and processed and offered it the very subsequent day. In this fashion, the corporate’s providing was constructed on market demand.

As the years progressed, Azaglo realised she wanted to get the tools in place to run an expert operation. She steadily added dehydration and packaging machines at a facility in Greater Accra on land the household owned.

The farms have since been offered and the corporate now sources from suppliers and farmers. All the processing is finished in-house, besides for the cooking palm oil, which is finished by the provider itself after which packaged and offered by the corporate as Selasie Zomi.

Convenience and nostalgia

Azaglo believes the corporate’s products are standard owing to the comfort it brings. “Preparing these meals from scratch really takes a long time. Also, the diaspora who have left Ghana, long for the food of their home and want to buy it where they now reside.”

From very early on, the corporate offered a few of its items to 3rd events who exported on a smaller scale to those clients, however Selasie’s first direct abroad cargo got here in 2015 after a name from a distributor in Australia. “She had seen my plantain fufu and wanted to do business. She travelled to Ghana, visiting both my house and factory before ordering the goods she wanted,” says Azaglo. “It was a 20-footer container!”

The buyer was so impressed and wanting to do enterprise that she made the total fee upfront to safe the cargo. More export clients adopted, and in 2019, round 40% of gross sales was geared in the direction of the export market with clients within the UK, Spain, US, Italy and Canada.

Selasie handles the export logistics for the UK consumer: arranging for the container and cargo itself. The American and Spanish purchasers have brokers in Ghana who gather the order and handle the export and transport independently. Upfront funds of between 60% and 70% are due by the purchasers earlier than processing.

The advantages of export purchasers

When the pandemic hit, Selasie’s local gross sales suffered. Where the steadiness was 60/40 in favour of home, it tilted 80/20 in the direction of exports in 2020. Restrictions on local motion resulted in decrease retail turnover and the corporate misplaced its itemizing in sure shops.

Selasie Farms and Groceries produces a wide range of meals resembling banku combine and hausa koko.

Selasie Farms and Groceries products are stocked in 58 shops in Greater Accra – together with Spar, Shoprite, Marina Mall and Max Mart – however others have dropped off and Azaglo is now attempting to revive these relationships. “I am reaching out, writing letters and sending our new price list, hoping orders will follow.”

The beneficial fee phrases from export purchasers is another excuse why Azaglo prefers to develop her international gross sales. Some supermarkets in Ghana pay solely after 30 days. For the smaller ones, the corporate usually has to attend for much longer. This severely impacts the corporate’s working capital.

Since the corporate began, local competitors has additionally elevated. Many competitor corporations have entered the fray, providing the identical gadgets as Selasie. “The domestic market is flooded. Another reason why I want to run away to the international market,” laughs Azaglo.

Investment for development

In 2021, the manufacturing facility underwent renovations to acquire international food security HACCP certification. With this in place, the corporate will be capable of export to much more markets.

However, Azaglo has recognized one impediment in the best way of development: the capability of the manufacturing facility’s present dehydrator. “Our dehydrator can manage 200 kilograms in 12 hours. When we get big orders, the drying time is too long and I am losing customers,” she says.

“Currently, I am looking for equity partners or a grant to boost this capacity. We need a new dehydrator that could double our output, handling 200 kilograms in six hours.”

Products with potential

Azaglo highlights a number of gadgets that she believes has a rising market: the hausa koko, the banku combine, the cooking palm oil, high-quality cassava flour and the crispy gari.

She has excessive hopes for a selected cereal combine with millet and soya bean that Selasie developed that would profit rising youngsters due to its dietary worth. When it was launched a few years in the past, some local hospitals used it as a part of their catering service. “When we introduced it, it was really popular. Although, owing to the rising price of millet, I made the cost decision to limit production as customers were not ready to pay the difference,” she explains. Thanks to rising queries, Selasie not too long ago resumed gross sales of this product.

The causes for the success of the opposite products vary from the comfort of the prepared mixes to the present scarcity of wheat flour attributable to the battle in Ukraine. More persons are turning to high-quality cassava flour.

“People are also choosing healthier food, having been reminded of the importance of health during the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says. “Our food is manufactured in a hygienic environment; it is healthy and contains nutrients and fibre. On top of that, our packaging is world-class.”

Selasie is attempting out three new products: a cashew paste, a candy ready-to-eat gari combine, and a bitter cacao butter that can be utilized in sizzling drinks. “We are testing the ground to see if there could be a market,” she notes.

Selasie Farms & Groceries founder Fafali Azaglo’s contact data

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