How one partnership integrated thousands of Kenya farmers into the global supply chain in a year

SokoLink — a P4G-backed partnership between Enviu, One Acre Fund, and SokoFresh — supported smallholder farmers in Kenya to reduce post-harvest food loss, connect them to export markets, and increase their income. Eight years ago, Joseph Wanyoike, a smallholder farmer in Kenya’s Kirungu, decided to cultivate avocados on his farm. After all, the creamy, nutrient-rich fruit is a “green gold” with high economic value and is gaining popularity across the globe. However, his journey cultivating this horticulture crop was marked by numerous setbacks. It was not just the rising temperatures and the scorching heat in the sub-Sahara African country that challenged his livelihood — the fundamental issue was systemic.

For farmers like Joseph, almost half of all fruits and vegetables harvested at the farm are lost before they reach the market. Most smallholder farmers depend on informal brokers to take their produce to the market. However, they buy only a small portion of the produce from the farmers. According to Joseph, these informal brokers not only refuse to pay an amount equivalent to market prices and input costs but often fail to pay altogether. Furthermore, the availability of cold storage facilities at the farm level is extremely limited, not to mention the lengthy trade duration, which typically spans around two to four days.

For Joseph, this resulted in significant post-harvest waste, diminishing the quality and quantity of his supply. Besides, his avocados were frequently stolen from his farm. Thus, the lack of storage facilities, and multiple actors in the value chain (farmer agency, broker, market broker, wholesale market, and transporter) cost him upto 40% post-harvest loss, leaving him in an endless cycle of poverty. Consequentially, paying the school fees of his children also, apparently, became a challenge for Joseph. “A farmer will never lack challenges in regard to the markets,” says the 52-year-old. In January 2022, Joseph found a way to mitigate these impediments, via SokoLink. Joseph, 52, found a solution in SokoLink to mitigate his post-harvest loss. Focused on Kenya, SokoLink is a P4G-backed partnership between Enviu, One Acre Fund (a leading farmer organization in Kenya), and SokoFresh, a venture built by Enviu.

The partnership supported smallholder farmers to reduce post-harvest food loss, connect to export markets, and increase their income. For Joseph, this collaborative partnership means a positive impact on his livelihood. “I can also send my children to school and have enough to undertake other development projects at home,” he says. How SokoLink intervenes in a broken supply chain SokoLink’s journey began in Murang’a county, a primary avocado-growing region in Kenya. Farmers harvest avocados two to three times a year. However, there is a challenge here — avocados ripen quickly, expedited by the ambient temperature and the prolonged waiting time for the market.

This makes pre-cooling storage and quick market linkage a critical intervention in the farm-to-fork journey. Pre-cooling involves the process of removing field heat from the freshly-harvested produce, as even an hour of delay can reduce its shelf-life by nearly one day. Pre-cooling at source or on-farm “retains original nutrients and can add several days to a product’s life, thereby substantially reducing subsequent food losses, boosting food safety, improving product quality and increasing incomes for producers,” according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Currently, in the absence of cold storage, many smallholder farmers in Kenya store their produce under banana leaves or bury them in the cool ground, especially when there is a significant gap between harvest day and logistics to the market. As seen in Joseph Wanyoike’s story, such post-harvest food waste impacts the livelihood of farmer families, too.

This is where SokoLink steps in. Each entity brought its unique strengths and shared goals to the partnership. Enviu drives systematic change rather than focusing on only one part of the supply chain. Through FoodFlow, our food systems program in East Africa, we build business interventions that eliminate post-harvest loss and support smallholders in becoming more climate-resilient. Out of the 40% post-harvest loss experienced at the farm level, SokoFresh reduces the rate to 2% by providing mobile, solar-powered cold storage facilities and first-mile, as-a-service market linkage. Committed to extensive farmer engagement and inputs provision, One Acre Fund facilitates the Global GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification for farmers, which shows no chemicals and synthetics were used for cultivation, among other ethical food production standards. Advancing their efforts, the project received catalytic funding from P4G, a global platform that accelerates partnerships to help them become investment-ready and contribute to climate transitions across food, water and energy.

They provide technical assistance and financial support to improve the lives of smallholder farmers like Joseph. Together, we implement three action-oriented solutions through this partnership: Reduce revenue loss from post-harvest spoilage, by incorporating SokoFresh’s cooling infrastructure into the supply chain. This not only extends the shelf-life of avocados but also enables farmers to command premium prices for their produce. Create a fully traceable supply chain by linking farmers directly to export buyers in Europe (such as the Netherlands) through a digital platform. This also removes brokers from the supply chain, enabling farmers to retain a substantive amount of the revenue from their avocado sales. This also ensures the farmers are included in the value chain. Support avocado farmers in receiving Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification for new overseas markets, where avocados are sold for premium prices.

Global GAP is an international standard that ensures food safety, positive environmental impact, and the welfare and safety of the workforce. The SokoLink impact During the P4G funding period, SokoLink aimed to increase farmer incomes by 40% on export trades, and reduce the average percentage of post-harvest food loss on export trades from the current 9% to less than 3%. A year since the partnership, here is where we stand. As of February 2023, A total of 20MT avocados have been shipped to buyers in Europe, ensuring traceability, and direct linkage between farmer and export buyer. This ensured competitive prices for farmers, with an average 69% increase in the price for the same basket of goods. This exceeded SokoLink’s initial estimate of a 20-40% gain in income.

A total of 6,000 smallholder farmers (SHFs) in Kenya have been Global GAP certified. They will now join the initiative to be connected to export markets. SokoFresh sourced 380 tonnes of export-grade avocados from smallholder farmers for their export partners. Designed and incorporated traceability hardware and software into the operations to provide transparency for every avocado sent to the buyer. Critical learnings Building a system with 0% food waste was not an easy task for SokoLink. The journey was fraught with certain challenges, including the external market. Last year, avocados from Peru flooded the market during the peak season. This made it hard for buyers to purchase from us. Besides, SokoLink relies on the Netherlands as a buyer, which also buys from other countries. The team encountered the second challenge through the Global GAP certificate. The liaison provides a maximum period of three months for farmers to procure the certificate. However, in reality, the process took them six months.

The delay in receiving the certificate meant the team could not fulfill buyer orders for the certified produce. The farmer dynamics, too, posed a challenge. The certified farmers would commit to delivering avocados. However, on the day of the harvest, they would have sold their produce to brokers, although the SokoLink team provided substantially higher prices. The team learned that it does take time to build trust with farmers. The way forward After documenting the challenges inherent in Kenya’s agricultural practices, piloting SokoLink’s innovative business model for a year, and witnessing its promising results, our work will be carried forward as a commercial partnership between SokoFresh and One Acre Fund.

Since Enviu takes a systemic approach to building impact ventures, the two entities will next focus on creating a resilient ecosystem that addresses structural inefficiencies in the agricultural practices of Kenya. To this end, we are developing solutions to help farmers transition to regenerative agricultural practices to ensure climate resilience, food security, and economic independence.

Interested in partnering with us to showcase how we reduce post-harvest loss and help farmers adopt regenerative techniques? Reach out to our Global PR Lead, Rachael at rachael@enviu.org