How digital platforms are connecting Kenyan farmers to profitable markets
Authored by: Josphine Kiruku — Communications Lead, Youth Impact Labs
From hive to home: Meet Bree’s Bees
Driven by the passion to become an entrepreneur, Brenda set up her first company, Bree’s Bees. Operating in East Africa’s business hub, Nairobi, Bree’s Bees is an agribusiness MSME specializing in honey production — off taking the honey from small holder farmers and cleaning and packaging it for distribution across Kenya. In a market flooded with sugar infused honey, Bree’s Bees is setting the pace by sourcing raw honey from Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid lands (West pokot (Baragoi and Kapedo) and Kitui County) where honey harvesting is considered a major economic activity.
As a value addition strategy, Bree’s Bees has injected new honey-based products into the market. This goes above the traditional “normal honey” products the market is familiar with. Some of the products they have introduced are; cream honey, garlic honey and comb honey which have seen them get a 4.9/5-star rating on their website.
Market share for MSMEs through digital platforms: Herdy and Bree’s Bees partnership
Agribusinesses are rapidly shifting to digital platforms to establish market share in a highly competitive economy. Today, consumers in urban settings are more likely to purchase products online from the comfort of their mobile phones and computers. With the urban population as its main target consumer, Bree’s Bees has engaged digital platforms like Herdy to increase market share and grow its brand. Herdy provides first mile solutions to farmers and last mile fulfillment to consumers. Currently, Bree’s Bees’ main product on the Herdy platform is its “Bree’s Bees Kitui Honey” which is growing in popularity due to its natural quality and affordability. Customers log onto the Herdy platform and purchase the product, after which, Herdy is responsible for making payment to Bree’s Bees based on the sales made.
Impact: Brand visibility, increased sales and employment
Thanks to the partnership with Herdy, Bree’s Bees, the company has expanded its clientele to minimarts, other online platforms like Jumia, restaurants within Nairobi and export companies.
“Through Herdy we have created brand awareness for our products, which would have otherwise been an expensive and time consuming process. We have also penetrated our market niche and increased our revenue by 10% annually”, Brenda said.
Additionally, from the proceeds of her honey enterprise, Brenda employs three young people to support the business. Her packaging has also increased from 250 grams and 500 grams to 1 kilogram each retailing between Ksh.250–1000 (USD 2.5–10). With increased sales, Brenda can contribute more to the social and economic development of the women and youth who make up majority of her suppliers from rural communities.
Brenda accolades Herdy for their seamless payment process. “It only takes a minimum of 5 days to receive payments once the invoice has been issued. This makes the payment process seamless and hustle free compared to other platforms,” she said.
Through this partnership, Herdy has also gained visibility and continues to attract more merchants like Brenda. To date, Herdy has provided market access to over 80 farmers by connecting them to over 800 households.
With technology bridging the gap between MSMEs and their target market, digital platforms should onboard MSMEs to increase their potential to tap into a new customer base and grow their visibility. Digital platforms present an opportunity for MSMEs to study their customers’ buying behavior and adjust their product offering as per the customers’ needs. Additionally, the partnerships between digital platforms like Herdy and MSMEs provide an opportunity for job creation for the youth through innovative technology solutions, which is the core purpose of the Youth Impact Labs program.
About Youth Impact Labs Program
Catalyzed by funding from Google.org, Mercy Corps’ Youth Impact Labs (YIL) identifies and tests creative, technology-enabled solutions to tackle global youth unemployment, accelerating job creation, so every young person has the opportunity for dignified, purposeful work. In Kenya, YIL focuses on digital marketplaces and platforms that offer services to micro and small businesses; agricultural supply chain management; and digital work. The program supports these enterprises through financial and technical support, issued in the form of milestone-based grants. Through our post-investment support, on-boarded partners also get access to advisory services to support the development of technology solutions and tailored business support service to actualize scale.
Youth Impact Labs has supported Herdy in generating demand for their online platform, setting up an offline market place, designing an internal operations strategy for recruiting smallholder farmers, providing quality assurance at large scale and procuring & installing a modern cold room.
