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"We're at the point now where we can secure high-quality raw materials in sufficient quantities and at stable prices"
After years of
watching working mothers switch from feeding their children Senegalese
grains to imported rice, Bineta Coulibaly decided to take action.
Traditionally in
Senegal, women would use locally produced, nutrient-rich millet flour to
make couscous, arraw (small balls of flour cooked as a porridge), or
thiacry (small steamed balls of flour) by hand in the home. However, as
Senegal began to industrialize and more women entered the workforce,
they began to choose a cheaper and easier alternative: rice imported
from abroad.
While this rice was
less expensive, quick to cook, and readily available, it was less
nutritious than millet. And, as foreign rice quickly gobbled up close to
70 percent of the market share of staple grains that millet had
formerly occupied, many Senegalese farmers who had grown millet for
years began to lose the market for their crops.
Determined to
increase demand for high-quality local grains and create opportunities
for farmers, while addressing the needs of working mothers like herself,
Bineta founded La Vivriére in 1992.
The business -
based in Pikine, a suburb of Dakar - takes locally grown millet, maize,
black-eyed pea and an indigenous West African grain known as fonio and
turns them into all-natural, nutrient-rich cereals.
By doing so, it
makes healthy staples of traditional Senegalese cooking widely available
to working mothers, but in a way that's as easy to prepare as rice.
Additionally, Bineta strives to create jobs for women in her community
who, like herself, seek to earn a living working in agroprocessing.
Of La Vivriére's 76
factory workers, 63 are women - many of them their families' primary
breadwinners, who would have struggled to find another job that pays as
much.
However, for years
La Vivriére lacked the working capital it needed to purchase the volumes
it required directly from farmers. Without access to sufficient
financing, La Vivriére had to purchase local cereals from
intermediaries, who held on to a portion of the profits that would
otherwise have gone to some of the country's poorest farmers.
ACCESS TO CAPITAL
In 2013, Root
Capital began to finance La Vivriére with an initial general working
capital loan of $100,000. With this, La Vivriére was able to minimize
its dependence on intermediaries and begin to source directly from
farmer associations.
Since we began
financing La Vivriére five years ago, Bineta and her team have started
working directly with several producer organizations in the central
Kaffrine and Kaolack regions of Senegal. These organizations also
partner with USAID's Feed the Future Initiative, which provides training
on best practices, traceability, and quality control, with an emphasis
on sustainable agriculture.
By leveraging
capital and training from Root Capital and Feed the Future, La Vivriére
today is ensuring that over 900 farmers in one of Senegal's most
vulnerable regions earn higher incomes.
La Vivriére still
faces challenges. For example, Bineta and her team continue to look for a
machine that will enable the company to mechanize the process of
turning millet flour into the balls used for couscous, arraw, and
thiacry. But now that the company has access to a steady source of
capital, Bineta is optimistic about the future.
"Thanks to the
financing and collaboration we've received from Root Capital, we're at
the point now where we can secure high-quality raw materials in
sufficient quantities and at stable prices," she says. "This is
essential for the effective development of businesses like ours."
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