Social Issue

Post-harvest losses represent huge wasted potential in African agriculture. In Tanzania alone, it is estimated that more than 48% of the produce grown is wasted, representing an enormous loss of income that would otherwise go to farmers. The main causes of post-harvest losses result from poor farming, transport and storage mechanisms. In addition to this, the challenges farmers face to gain market access makes them rely on middlemen, resulting in farmers getting less than 25% of the retail/market price.

Our Response

Netri Foundation is supporting East Africa Fruits (EAF), a social enterprise that was founded in 2013 with the mission to help smallholder farmers increase their incomes by providing improved access to markets and helping them improve the quality of their agricultural production.  EAF has done this by modernizing supply chain and demand logistics and is now the largest aggregator and distributor of fresh produce in Tanzania. They also support smallholder farmers on crop planning and technical assistance.

Currently, East Africa Fruits has more than 7,000 registered farmers and is buying the agricultural production of 4,710 farmers in northern, southern and eastern Tanzania.

Expected Social Impact

Historically, farmers working with EAF have achieved  increases in farmer productivity of 19% per hectare as a result of the technical assistance provided..

Farmers who sell their production earn an average of $2,100 which is almost double the GNI/person in the country.  

As for Netri’s attribution, we estimate that this loan will enable EAF to provide technical assistance to more than 300 farmers to help them improve the quality of their production and to purchase the production of 60% of them, assuring them a reliable market at fair prices.