Yonas Alemu, founding father of meals firm Lovegrass Ethiopia
Superfoods, outlined as nutrient-rich meals useful for well being and well-being, have gained international recognition lately. Whereas chia seeds and quinoa usually take the highlight, Africa boasts its personal array of crops that at the moment are making their means onto the worldwide stage. We spotlight three entrepreneurs producing superfood merchandise from Africa on the market each regionally and internationally.
1. Zimbabwe: The entrepreneur unlocking baobab’s business potential
Baobab powder, derived from the fruit of the baobab tree, has practically 4 occasions the vitamin C content material of oranges and is wealthy in important minerals like potassium and magnesium. Zimbabwe-based entrepreneur Gus Le Breton co-founded B’Ayoba, an organization that exports baobab powder to worldwide markets.
Baobab bushes develop in 33 African nations, and their derivatives have lengthy been used regionally for numerous functions. These embrace powder from the nutrient-rich fruit pulp, natural teas and medicines constituted of the leaves and funicles (the skinny cords attaching the seeds to the fruit wall), and cord from the bark. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till Le Breton’s involvement that these merchandise have been explored for his or her business potential.
“All of them thought I used to be fully nuts … I’d say to rural folks, ‘You already know, there’s these bushes, you may have eaten the fruit your entire life, what about promoting it?’ And they might simply chuckle at me and it was like, ‘Who’s ever going to purchase this? I imply, they’re free. You may decide them up off the bottom. Why would anybody pay cash for that?’”
At present, B’Ayoba entails over 5,000 rural harvesters in its baobab provide chain. With every harvester supporting 4 or 5 folks, it’s estimated that baobab manufacturing advantages between 20,000 and 25,000 folks. Listen to the full interview with Gus Le Breton
2. London banker builds Ethiopian meals firm
Teff, a tiny grass seed native to Ethiopia, is likely one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops, domesticated between 6,000 and 4,000 BC. For millennia, Ethiopians have used teff flour to make ‘injera’, a flat, spongy sourdough bread that may be a staple of their weight loss program. Celebrated as a superfood, teff is gluten-free and full of vitamins like iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, zinc, and nutritional vitamins B and C. Even Ethiopian elite runner Haile Gebrselassie credit teff as a key think about his athletic achievements.
Yonas Alemu, an funding banker turned entrepreneur, is the founder and managing director of Lovegrass Ethiopia, a well being meals firm that produces a spread of things from teff and different Ethiopian grains. Its choices embrace pasta, breakfast cereals, pancake mixes, powdered drinks, and snacks. With a manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Lovegrass caters to each worldwide and native markets.
In 2014, he got here throughout teff in some well being meals shops in London however was perplexed after discovering the teff on cabinets got here not from its native Ethiopia, however from the US the place it was commercially cultivated. Recalling his childhood and the way laborious the farmers toiled, Yonas determined to start out a enterprise promoting Ethiopian meals merchandise within the international market. Watch our full interview with Yonas Alemu
3. West African fonio firm seeks piece of worldwide gluten-free market
Fonio, a gluten-free grain wealthy in vitamins, has been cultivated in West Africa for 1000’s of years. This drought-resistant crop thrives with out the necessity for fertilisers and helps restore natural matter to fallow soils. Regardless of its lengthy historical past within the area, fonio has remained largely under-commercialised.
Sustainable African Meals, a three way partnership between businessman Simballa Sylla, former CEO of Mali-based shea butter firm Mali Shi, and US-based African meals firm Yolélé – co-founded by chef Pierre Thiam and Philip Teverow –is aiming to vary that. The corporate is establishing the world’s first industrial-scale fonio processing plant in Mali, which can produce processed fonio grains and flour.
“A couple of years again, I obtained a name from a contact on the Worldwide Finance Company. He wished me to satisfy with an American named Philip Teverow who was prospecting in Mali,” Sylla remembers. “A couple of hours later Phil got here to our workplace. I scheduled the assembly to be for one hour however I believe we ended up speaking for greater than two hours. He defined what he and chef Pierre Thiam have been doing at Yolélé. I’ve not met anybody who is aware of extra about fonio than Phil and Pierre. They’re actually captivated with it. That assembly was when and the place we determined to enter fonio. We now share the identical imaginative and prescient in the direction of making fonio “attractive” and for it to contribute to meals safety.” Read our full interview with Simballa Sylla