Sorghum Value Chain Development, East Africa

Main goal of the project is to improve the level of food security and living standards of sorghum farmers in Eastern Africa by a quantitative and qualitative increase in sorghum production and the simultaneous provision of a sustainable market. Among other activities, a Public Private Partnership (PPP) will be initiated in order to substantially enhance the sorghum supply chain from primary producers to large scale agro-industrial processors. The strategic goal of the private sector partner East African Breweries Ltd. (EABL) is to substitute a considerable amount of imported grains through locally produced sorghum. As an outcome of the project, sorghum farmers will be able to improve productivity and increase their net incomes through greater access to improved inputs, processing technologies, and marketing options provided through commercial agribusinesses and producer associations. 

The project builds upon substantial experiences gained within a similar CFC financed project  for West Africa (FIGG/34) that has been rewarded with the 2010 World Business & Development Award issued jointly by the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Business Leaders Forum. On the basis of the successful implementation of FIGG/34, the proposed project seeks to make a decisive step forward; that is by introducing new beverage brands that are marketed on the basis of their 100% content of locally sourced raw materials. EABL’s intention is to launch such a new exclusively sorghum based beverage brand as soon as a reliable regional sorghum supply chain is established.

The project has enjoyed an encouraging start in 2011 and the very high expectations and targets set forward by the private sector partner EABL prove to be an incentive for all stakeholders for enhanced performance. By now already around 17,000 tons of sorghum have been delivered to the brewery for processing against the originally anticpated target of 16,000 tons at year one. Participating sorghum farmers have received USD 2 million in payments for white sorghum despite losing the first season harvest due to extreme drought. So far most of the progress made by the project concerns only two of the three target countries, i.e. Kenya and Uganda. These countries are a priority for EABL/EAML as both these countries (a) offer a tax incentive for the use of local raw material and (b) are commercially of greater interest to the company. These favourable conditions do not exist yet in Tanzania.