John Oroko, is the co-founder of Selina Wamucii, a company linking up Kenyan farmers with the international market.
The company which was established in 2015 sources fresh produce from local farmers, grades it and delivers it to global vendors and distributors.
Selina Wamucii is hoping to become yhe first vompany in Africa to become the largest distributor of fresh produce without owning land.
Here is their story as told by EAFeed.
John who was brought in a smallholder family was inspired to establish the company by challenges that rural farmers undergo.
Due to these challenges, he commited himself to solve the challenges by use of technology.
After graduating from university, John worked shortly before quitting his job to establish Selina Wamucii which is named after his mother and his co-founder’s mother.
The choice of the company’s name was in a bid to honour their mothers who worked hard to educate them and provide for the rest of the family.
“The story of our mothers as rural smallholder farmers is that of tens of thousands more across the country and this inspired me to start Selina Wamucii
“It matters to me because I believe we have the best opportunity to transform Africa’s agricultural value chains while passing the benefits of an efficient chain to producer communities across the continent,” John said.
The company is working hundreds of farmers growing high-value foods such as fruits, vegetables, fish, seafood and spices.
Selina Wamucii distributes these foods to vendors across markets in Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.
“Our main strength is utilisation of technology to shorten and transform the agricultural supply chain while passing the benefits of an efficient chain to buyers and the producer communities across Africa
“The vision is to build strong, sustainable value chains for all Africa’s producers, the majority of who are smallholders, enable their produce to meet standards and access the best markets in the world,” John added.
To join, farmers sign up via USSD code which prompts the system to capture information relating to the geographical locations of farmers and what they produce.
It also records the various stages of progress throughout the season, harvest projections and volumes at harvest.
In terms of payments, farmers are paid automatically through M-PESA.
“Our main advantage is the utilization of mobile technology to shorten and transform the agricultural supply chain while passing the benefits of an efficient chain to both the farmers and fresh produce buyers.
“By so doing, we are making it sustainably profitable to source fresh produce from smallholder farmers while meeting market demand,” John told Bonjouridee Magazine.
