Our new guide, How we made it in Africa II: Actual tales of entrepreneurs turning alternative into revenue, is accessible right here. The guide was not too long ago shortlisted for the Enterprise Council for Africa (BCA) African Enterprise E book of the 12 months Awards 2026.
Entrepreneur Seun Rasheed is the founding father of SOUK Farms, which provides Rwandan-grown produce – together with avocados, chillies and beans – to supermarkets in Europe and the Center East. The corporate sources its produce each from its personal farms and from about 2,000 smallholder farmers in Rwanda.
Of Rwanda’s 10 largest agricultural exporters when SOUK Farms was based in 2019, solely 4 are nonetheless working, in line with Rasheed – proof of how troublesome the business could be.
Rasheed describes the enterprise as extremely cash-intensive, each when it comes to infrastructure and dealing capital. Clients sometimes pay between 30 and 90 days after receiving their orders, however a lot of the firm’s bills should be settled a lot sooner.
“You may’t inform a smallholder farmer, ‘Anticipate 30 days earlier than you receives a commission,’” he says. Farmers usually count on fee the day after their produce is collected. Airways sometimes require fee upfront or inside seven days, whereas packaging suppliers are paid prematurely and farm staff on the finish of every week.
This leaves SOUK Farms carrying most of its prices nicely earlier than the corresponding income arrives.
Wholesaling has comparatively low boundaries to entry. “You can begin exporting to the Center East at this time with none main certifications, for instance,” he says.
Nonetheless, exporters typically have restricted energy within the wholesale market. A purchaser could reject a cargo on high quality grounds and refuse fee, whereas sudden value declines can drive suppliers to simply accept lower than the agreed quantity.
“When wholesale costs crash, your shopper will come again to you and say, ‘Sorry, I can’t pay the agreed value … I can solely pay this a lot – take it or depart it,’” Rasheed explains. “That’s why you see an enormous turnover of exporters as a result of all it takes is to lose out on one large cargo and your small business is bankrupt.”
Though SOUK Farms started by promoting by means of wholesalers, the purpose was at all times to provide retailers overseas straight. The overwhelming majority of its gross sales now go to grocery store chains in Europe and the Center East, together with Morrisons and Co-op within the UK and Edeka in Germany.
Retailers supply higher margins and are extra predictable counterparties. Securing them as prospects, nevertheless, takes significantly longer and comes with extra demanding necessities. Rasheed places the timeframe at “about two to a few years between preliminary contact with the retailer to truly getting your product on the cabinets”.
A part of the reason being that retailers conduct extra in depth compliance checks and verification than wholesalers. Suppliers should additionally get hold of quite a few certifications, that are costly to keep up. Rasheed says SOUK Farms spends greater than $50,000 a yr on certifications.
Watch/learn our full in-depth interview with Seun Rasheed: Nigerian creates enterprise exporting avocados and chillies from Rwanda to European supermarkets
