Soupah Farm en Market

WHAT IF WE COULD REDUCE FOOD WASTE AND PROMOTE FAIR PAY?

We’ve set out to right-size the cost of food in Nigeria by addressing the structure behind the food supply chain in the country. Nigerians spend 60% of their income on buying food. The high cost of food reflects the mark-ups added by middlemen, before the produce is sold in local markets and kiosks. We match supply and demand by collecting fresh produce from farmers at fair prices and delivering to vendors' doorsteps at affordable prices with full transparency.

By digitising logistics and cutting out middlemen, we believe we could deliver better prices to both farmers and vendors, improve financial inclusion for farmers and vendors whilst shrinking the agricultural value chain to reduce food prices for final consumers.

We are a female-founded, female-led enterprise with women occupying 100% of leadership roles and accounting for 90% of our workforce. From a farmer’s daughter to an experienced trader, our passion brought us together to create value for our community.

FUNDING WOULD ALLOW US TO…

Funding would allow us to expand our solution and increase our impact. Our process so far has consequently prevented the emission of over 2,287 tonnes of methane gas into the atmosphere, as well as fairer prices for farmers and vendors.

We currently work with a network of 368 smallholder farmers and 86 urban vendors; gleaning almost 10,000 tonnes of post-harvested fruits and vegetables.

With funding we will acquire the additional equipment and resources needed to grow our reach and increase these numbers to over 24,000 farmers and 8,000 vendors within two years. This will connect over 400 tonnes of food daily, reducing fresh food prices by 21% for over 18 million people, while deploying full transparency and blockchain traceability for food safety.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP INSPIRED ME

As a young girl of eight years old, I discovered early that I have a knack for business and using my ideas to solve a problem. Enterprise came naturally to me. Once I reached university, I started looking for opportunities to solve real world problems, leading me to launch a small food retail business on campus to meet the needs of my fellow students.

After few months, I came across another wonderful problem. It was a farmer who had excess produce. She walked up to me pleading that I should buy them off her at a ridiculous price. In that moment, I realised how my business could solve both social and environmental problems.

WHAT’S YOUR BLEND FOR SUCCESS?

For us, success is solving a problem whilst creating a greener planet and a better society. We have a successful blend of technology, expertise, an innovative model and dauntless commitment, that is changing our local food economy.

We have the perfect combination of good intentions, by reducing post-harvest losses and food prices, and good sense of economics, by increasing farmers and vendors’ profits.