KENYA – Twiga Foods, a business to business food distribution company in Kenya, has launched its operations in Eldoret as part of its plan to expand in the East African region.
The online distributor headquartered in Nairobi has operations in Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu, Embu, Meru, Kisumu, Kirinyaga counties and now Uasin Gishu County.
The company sources produce directly from farmers and delivers it to retail outlets, kiosks, and market stalls who sell to the end consumers.
Through this they help farmers reduce post-harvest losses on fresh produce by identifying ready market and quickly delivers the supplies to the millions of small and medium-sized vendors.
Seeking to carry out their operations in a transparent way, Twiga Foods recently partnered with plastic and packaging solutions provider, Silafrica to create and assimilate the use of smart crate systems.
This new tech solution gives the farmers a way of tracking their produce until it reaches the market as the crates are fitted with Near-Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which relay real-time data as the crates move from one point to the other.
It enables the farmers to conveniently get key information about the product with a single tap of their phone and actively get involved throughout its transit process.
Meanwhile, the tech-enabled food distribution platform, has clinched a funding of Ksh 1.6 billion (US$15 million) from its long partner and financier, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The investment will be used to support the development of up to 300 irrigated medium-scale contract farmers to complement Twiga’s seasonal smallholder farmer supply base.
This is aimed to stabilize year-round fresh fruit and vegetable volumes in line with Twiga Foods mission of supplying readily available safe, affordable, and high-quality food to Kenya’s urban markets.
The funding, through unfunded risk sharing facilities (RSFs) with tier 1 commercial banks in Kenya, is part of an aggregate portfolio of loans of up to Ksh. 3.2 billion (US$30 million).
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