Entrepreneurship Zone: 24 May 2023 :: Company bets on surging demand for West African ancient grain fonio in US market

Tue May 23 22:48:21 CAT 2023

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Entrepreneurship Zone: 24 May 2023 ::  Company bets on surging demand for
West African ancient grain fonio in US market

·          

Fonio – a gluten-free grain with many nutritional benefits – has been
cultivated as a subsistence crop in West Africa for thousands of years. It
is drought-resistant, can grow without the support of fertiliser and
restores organic matter in fallow soil.

US-based African-food company Yolélé is tapping into rising demand for
fonio. Its fonio products are currently available at over 2,000 grocery
stores in the US, including Whole Foods and Target. Yolélé recently
partnered with Mali-based agribusiness company Mali Shi to establish a new
venture, called West African Ancient Grains, that plans to process thousands
of tonnes of fonio in Mali to meet increasing global interest in the
superfood.

We asked Pierre Thiam, founder of Yolélé, about his business and demand for
fonio in the US market. Below are slightly edited excerpts from the
interview.

Give us an overview of Yolélé’s business.

Yolélé started by selling bags of fonio at a single New York City store in
2017. Today our fonio is sold in over 2,000 stores across the United States.
We also use fonio to make pilaf mixes and now fonio chips, a salty snack
line that we introduced in 2021.

We are also present in the foodservice sector. That part of the business
slowed during Covid, but we expect it to increase in the coming months and
years.

Our consumers fall into different categories: adventurous eaters searching
for unfamiliar cooking styles; health- and nutrition-driven shoppers; West
Africans yearning for a taste of home; and African Americans hoping to
explore their heritage through food.

We’ve had a lot of interest from other countries too. We expect to sell in
Europe and elsewhere before too long.

Yolélé has now partnered with Mali-based Mali Shi to establish West African
Ancient Grains. Tell us more about this venture.

We created Yolélé to provide income opportunities for smallholder farmer
families in Africa. When we started, we thought all we’d have to do was
create demand, and farmers would start making money. But when we looked into
the supply chain for crops like fonio, we realised that the state of
processing was a hindrance to developing a large market. We knew we’d have
to introduce processing capacity at an industrial scale if we wanted to
achieve the impact we hoped for.

We knew we needed to work with local partners in a fonio-growing country
that had an industrial mindset and agri-processing experience. All roads
pointed to Mali Shi. They were already operating an industrial-scale
facility providing global customers with food-grade shea butter, supplied by
their sourcing network of over 20,000 women, almost all of whom live in
fonio-growing families. We met, we felt an affinity, and decided to
establish West African Ancient Grains together.

West African Ancient Grains will contract directly with smallholder
organisations to grow fonio paddy. We will buy that fonio paddy and turn it
into fonio and fonio flour to sell to industrial customers. Those customers
will use our output to make all sorts of grain-based foods.

A Senegalese village chief holds up the fonio grain. Photo by Richard
Nyberg

How will West African Ancient Grains tie in with Yolélé’s existing business
in the US?

Part of the tie-in is assuring Yolélé of a reliable source of supply for
high-quality fonio for its products. But on another level, West African
Ancient Grains allows us to achieve our fundamental purpose of generating
traceable income for smallholders engaged in climate-smart, sustainable,
biodiverse agriculture. Efficient, reliable processing was the missing link
between smallholders and global markets.

In a way, Yolélé is West African Ancients Grains’ marketing arm.
Distributing hip products that feature fonio is a way of creating awareness
and consumer interest, and thereby spurring demand from other food
manufacturers.

Describe the demand for fonio in the US market, both from retail customers
and bigger food manufacturers.

Demand for fonio is growing every day, as measured by store count, online
sales, and even social media engagement. We are dealing with the largest
retailers in the country now.

On the manufacturer side, we’re looking at interest right now from smaller,
more nimble companies that want to be on-trend. And we’re in discussions
with larger companies that have corporate commitments to help achieve the UN
Sustainable Development Goals. The people commissioned to execute on that
front have found that it’s hard to do that. Our conversations with them are
about how using West African Ancient Grains’ products can allow them to
achieve traceable impact, easily.

We see nothing but clear open space in front of us. If large food
manufacturers use even a tiny amount of fonio in their formulations, the
impact in West Africa on people and landscape would be formidable.

Pierre Thiam, founder of Yolélé, with some of the company’s products.

Invest Wisely!

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