As a growing business, you often want to know when you expand production the cost of expansion, the projected market demand versus your immediate competition. We see solid potential and opportunity for growth with respecting the agroecological principles but are limited due to restricted access to finance to enable us to do these investments.”
Yvonne Anne Otieno, Co-Founder, Miyonga
Location: Taveta, Kenya
Founding year: 2015
Website: Miyonga Fresh Greens
Revenue: USD 500,000 (2022)
Investment ask: USD 1 million–5 million, preferably in convertible debt
Investment needed to:
- Set up a digital traceability system
- Product certification training for farmers
- Expand processing capability by setting up a secondary satellite processing facility for fruits
- Expand in East and West Africa.
Commodities and services:
- Agro-processing
- Exporting
- Training of smallholder farmers.
Enterprise portrait
Miyonga was formally incorporated in 2015 as a family business that is 92% women owned and 100% women led. It began as a transitional horticultural farm with 10 acres in Machakos County, Kenya. As a communications expert turned entrepreneur, its female founder was keen to empower women and enable them to earn more income to meet their family’s nutritional, health and educational needs. Her aim is to improve food security in Africa by reducing food waste and empowering young people and women. Miyonga achieves this by buying surplus fruits that would otherwise go to waste at the farm gate level, connecting smallholder farmers to high-growth markets in Europe, and creating the opportunity for farmers to gain knowledge on how to create additional value from their fruit production and receive training on good agricultural practices.
Key commercial activities
Miyonga provides over 3,600 smallholder farmers in Kenya with training in global GAP and organic farming practices, as well as food safety training through its “Wheeling Fruits” initiative to promote agroecological transformation. Training covers, for example, natural farming methods that reduce pesticide use and promote the use of organic inputs.
Miyonga goes beyond addressing production practices, trading and marketing produce. Through its innovative agro-processing concept, it also actively reduces post-harvest losses by taking surplus supplies of fruits that are considered cosmetically unattractive due to strict aesthetic/marketing standards and transforming them into shelf-stable dried or powdered horticultural products. Through the drying process, perishable fruits that might otherwise go to waste are turned into longer-lasting products. Miyonga focuses on fruits produced on rural Kenyan farms, mainly from mango, banana and pineapple value chains.
Miyonga’s mobile processing unit can be moved from one region to another based on which fruits are in season, thus reducing idle time. This increases the business’s operational efficiency by ensuring year-round operations. Farmers are also recruited as operators of the mobile processing unit during production. This not only enables knowledge transfer to farmers but gives them an opportunity to earn additional income.
By processing fruits at their source (the farm gate), Miyonga sidesteps the need to transport bulky fresh produce to packing facilities. Instead, it transports dried fruits, which weigh ten times less than undried fruits. This results in fewer trips, ultimately contributing to greenhouse gas emission reduction and increased value generation at the farm gate level.
Setting up a second satellite processing facility for fruits is an essential requirement for Miyonga’s growth. With increased production capacity, Miyonga will be able to satisfy existing demand and sign additional contracts, thereby doubling production and revenue.
Agroecology impact highlights
- 55.8% of Miyonga’s workers are female, and 46.15% are both full time and female. The company’s two female directors work full time in the business.
- Miyonga has a strong climate focus, demonstrated through its track record of curbing food loss, optimising the value chain and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The company also intentionally and systemically incorporates all 13 agroecological principles in its work and does not cross any agroecological ‘red lines’. The principles of fairness (inclusion of women), connectivity (linking farmers with farmers and with markets), economic diversification and biodiversity are also key focus areas for the business.
Current challenges
- Limited drying capacity: Miyonga’s concrete orders are four times bigger than it can satisfy with its drying capacity. Much broader consumer demand is also evident in Europe. Its existing farmers network would be able to guarantee the demanded supply.
- Product certification: Worldwide demand for dried topical fruit exceeds supply and is still growing. Demand for organic products is also increasing as ever-growing numbers of consumers favour healthy snacks. Miyonga’s suppliers produce naturally but often lack the proper documentation required for certification. The represents a lost opportunity for farmers to earn higher incomes from sales of premium-priced products. For farmers in the network to qualify for fair trade and organic certification, they need to be trained on proper documentation, food safety and farm management. This requires investment. Unfortunately, commercial funders do not fund capacity building for farmers due to the slower return on investment – thus the need for grants to fund training.
- Digital traceability system: A digital traceability system would help Miyonga track its own impact and that of its farmers.
What could increased finance unlock?
- Miyonga aims to enhance its production capacity by setting up a secondary satellite processing facility for fruits. This expansion will allow the business to secure more contracts and fulfill the existing demand.
- In the second phase, Miyonga plans to extend its reach to East and West Africa through a distributed model featuring 15 hub and spoke systems. Initial collaborations in Nigeria have already begun.
Financing track record
Miyonga has so far been financed through a mix of seed capital (mostly grants), one major loan and revenue generated from the business.