PREMIUM HORTUS
As Business Administration and Corporate Communication Specialist, Johannes Goudjanou is a social or Green Entrepreneur cofounder of several innovations for the SDGs in Africa. He is passionate about clean technologies and management of PREMIUM HORTUS.
Johannes is a Young Climate Champion awarded by UN with the congratulations of the Secretary-General at the UN CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT (New York, 2019). He also is Country-Representative of INITIATIVES CLIMAT organization and International Secretariat for Water(BLUE PASSPORT).He Leads several successful activities with the coordination of several national and international projects in climate change,agroecology, energy,youth and SDGs.
As one of TOP100 Millennial distinguished by the Global Citizen and TEDx to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s centennial and TEF HUB LEAD of the Tony Elumelu Foundation he coordinates several activities of the TEF entrepreneurship program,a commitment of more than $100 million for the empowerment of young people with more than 9,000 funded since 2015.
Like many African countries, Beninese agriculture use large quantities of chemical inputs, with very traditional distribution system and lacking in cleantech causing high vulnerability of populations and ecosystems.
Available as a Web, mobile platform, blockchains, payment solutions and cleantech,Premium Hortus allows to subscribe, order, pay online, get home-delivered organic food and products safely. With a few clicks, evereyone can pay securely by QR Code or their HORTUS KIETUD subscription card,the first cryptocurrency for sustainable agriculture in Africa.
Users control their consumption, reduce waste, donate food, and receive a food insurance credit ''CALIM+" in these difficult times like covid19.
With our organic farms,small farmers also benefit from adequate technologies,access to organics inputs,technical support and our healthy food supply chain.They easily monitor the evolution of stocks remotely by phone or PC.
Labeled EFFICIENT SOLUTION with UN support and awarded "Outstanding Pratices in Agroecology at GFFA 2019, PREMIUM HORTUS reduces 46.67% GHG emitted.
Africa has strong population growth and could reach will rise to 2.5 billion in 2050 according to the United Nations. Like many African countries, Benin has had a rapid increase in its urban population (47,312% in 2018, World Bank) with high demand for food. Large quantities of chemical inputs are used. The distribution system remains very traditional and lacking in cleantech. Also, there are huge post-harvest losses and food waste (up to 45% for fruits,FAO) despite the productivity declines, the high vulnerability to climate change.
This causes significant water and soil pollutions, biodiversity loss,GHG emissions and increases populations vulnerability to price spikes with high poverty. Food insecurity affects 33.6 percent of households, while acute malnutrition affects 16 percent of children under 5 and chronic malnutrition affects 44.6 percent of children in the same age group.
Border closures and lockdown measures generate strong demand for organic products, high price spikes with great risk of food shortages while COVID-19 increasingly threatens the health of our vulnerable populations. Our monitoring and price analysis since January shows an increase in food prices. The risk of food insecurity can be worse and more deadly than the virus itself in this context of climate change.
To meet this challenge, we innovate PREMIUM HORTUS, the African greentech for scaling agroecology to achieve the SDGs.
Available as a Web, Mobile platform, Big data, blockchains and Payment solutions," Premium Hortus" allows you to subscribe, order, pay online, so as to get home-delivered fruits, vegetables, and organic products safely.
In addition, we have developed "Hortus Kietud", a disruptive innovation allowing each subscriber to pay in just a few clicks for any organic product securely at no additional cost via their card or a QR Code.
Users can control their consumption, reduce waste, donate food, and receive a food insurance credit ''CALIM+" to support them during financially hard times like covid-19. Waste is limited and recycled for organic composting,biogas, and for the cosmetics industry.
We also have organic farms and small farmers benefit from cleantech, access to organics inputs, technical support , to soil, water, knowledge and sharing of experiences.
Our blockchain system and healthy food chain "FudSup" secure the agroecological value chain and guarantee to all stakeholders the quality, traceability, security and transactions from farm to the consumer's plates. Small producers easily monitor the evolution of stocks remotely by phone or PC and quickly receive their income after sale.
1- Households (402.096 Urban households of at least 200 €/Months, 2,860,078 employees aged 18-65)
Food is the first consumption item of urban households we target. The average annual expenditure per person on food is 41 and 65% of the expenditure of state employees.They have high fruit and vegetable consumption (588Kg/year), and prefer more organic products.
2- Restaurants and hotels (we target 34%)
Like the households, they are confronted with the absence of company specialized in e-commerce/distribution of orgnics products like PREMIUM HORTUS and get expensive suplies from some supermarkets.
3- Small producers (more than 5.000)
We offer them subscriptions,partnerships and various solution with deliveries by ecological logistics, according to their needs. We developped viral communications and an own credible Label for our short distribution circuits and new healthy food supply chain “FudSup”. We regularly do satisfaction surveys and develop with them a family relationship as climate changemakers. Small producers are included in setting our costs with various supports for access to organic inputs, markets and partnerships.
TAM: 10 502 348 USD/ year
SAM: 30,204% of TAM estimated at 3.172.146 USD
SOM: 45% or 1 427 465 USD over 03 years with an annual growth rate of 20%
- Elevating understanding of and between people through changing people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
PREMIUM HORTUS promotes an agroecological transition to make our current food systems sustainable and achieve sustainable development objectives. We innovate and promote the behaviors and processes of sustainable production and consumption, essential to the effective fight against hunger, poverty, and to social, economic and environmental resilience. The current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrates the urgency of scaling up our solutions for sustainable food in order to save humanity and our future generations. With PREMIUM HORTUS everyone becomes a development actor for healthy food for all in a healthy environment.
Passionate about Agriculture and technology, I had the chance to work with my grandfather during the holidays and I realized that despite being one of the best farmers in Benin, he was confronted problems with the sale of its products and the climatic changes facing which he was developing adaptation practices. In rainy seasons (period of abundance of food), a large part of their production is lost or sold at ridiculous prices to wholesalers.
After my scholarship in Business Administration at the National School of Applied Economics and Management, in 2012, the group Beninese Young Agribusiness Men Project (BYAM), composed of young students, was formed and acquired five large cultures in Glazoué (yam, cassava, chili, traditional vegetables) thanks to the intermediation between agroecologists and buyers. Following research and experimentation projects, Premium Hortus was formed in 2016. Reconciling Management, ICTs and Agriculture had become my first challenge, and feeding the world is for me the noblest accomplishment to save humanity from hunger.
Thanks to the support of the OIF and the Swiss Confederation, the business model has been evaluated and improved.In 2017, PREMIUM HORTUS benefited from incubation at UAC STARTUPVALLEY,the largest incubator in West Africa, with the intellectual protection of OAPI.
Africa of happiness is possible. Innovations with a strong social impact are essential.My ultimate ambition is to provide better concrete, efficient, profitable and sustainable solutions to reduce poverty, hunger, climate change and creation of decent jobs in Africa.
By 05 to 10 years, I'd like to be a great Leader or reference in Africa's green growth and make PREMIUM HORTUS company '' The African leader of cleantech in Agroecology for sustainable development by 2025 ''.
Nelson Mandela also said “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation”. I'm that generation.
I remain convinced that together we can change the world into "a clean, fair and sustainable place which guarantees everyone a healthy diet, better living conditions, peace and a better future for our future generations."
It's possible to achieve the SDG, it's now! Together, let’s work for a better world.
As a Business Administration and Corporate Communication specialist, Co-Founder of several innovations distinguished internationally, with an expertise of 7 years apart from my agricultural and ICT skills, I am able to handle a wide range of managerial, technical and administrative functions and consistently producing top-quality performance.
Senior Consultant in auditing, consulting,I was also fortunate to have trained more than 1000 young entrepreneurs, SMEs and several international organizations in Innovation, Greenpreneurship, Business Administration and Communication.
I lead PREMIUM HORTUS with a Young team of co-founders with complementary expertise (average 07 years) in business administration, communication, computer engineering, agronomy and nutrition sciences. We all know and respect each other, accept our differences to innovate and impact together. We share the same values of innovation, professionalism, responsibility, leadership, excellence and eco citizenship.
Our actions are planned, executed and frequently monitored. Our goal is to accelerate the success of PREMIUM HORTUS in Team with a true Creative Leadership.
SOME RECENT PRIZE AND DISTINCTIONS
- OUTSTANDING PRATICES IN AGROECOLOGY ‘’OPA 2019’’ – GFFA, Berlin
- TONY ELUMENU FOUNDATION ‘’TEF” AWARD 2019
- SPECIAL PRIZE OF “RFI CHALLENGE APP AFRIQUE 2018” by MICROSOFT RFI, MTN and SG Bank.
-BEST GLOBAL INNOVATIONS IN AGROECOLOGY- FAO, (Rome, April 2018),
We started PREMIUM HORTUS from university as students and we took on several challenges. The first challenges that we encountered in implementing our innovation are:
- Poor access to land Faced with difficult access to land, we started fruits and vegetable production with 1000 m². We took up this challenge by first collaborating with small farmers who share our vision, by supporting them through the provision of biofertilizers and resilient seeds by other young agricultural engineers from the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences. In addition to distribution, we offered them free training in project writing and production management with support in seeking funding. Today, our platform has more than 50 hectares of agroecological productions in Benin with hundreds of producers.
- Insufficient production and logistics equipment
We had few means for delivering products to customers.Also, our production logistics were very insufficient. We were able to buy some new irrigation equipment, delivery bikes and motorcycles.
- Lack of Funding
French speaking Africa, especially Benin, is marked by poor access to finance for agricultural and digital startups. We reinvested our benefits and personnal contibutions with some seed-capital grants from Tony Elumelu Foundation and technical supports from our partners.
Recognized by partners and colleagues as a consummate young leader, proactive, take-charge, professional with a high degree of team spirit, rigor, excellence and a talent for resourceful efficient solutions,
I work with several organizations like FAO, PARTNERS FOR DEVELOPMENT, FRANCOPHONIE, as a greenpreneur, communicator, consultant, trainer and young green growth expert at CIDEV. My leadership also allowed me to be the Country Representative of several international organizations including INITIATIVES CLIMAT since 2018.
I'm currently the HUB LEAD of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and i coordinate several activities of the TEF entrepreneurship program, a commitment of more than $100 million supported by UNDP intended for the empowerment of young people by training and funding millions of young people with more than 9,000 funded since 2015.I remain a source of inspiration for thousands of entrepreneurs.As a UN Young Climate Champion and a TOP 100 Millennials changemakers - Nelson Mandela (by Global Citizen and TEDxJohannesburg) are also proof of my leadership.
I'm also Proud to work with against desertification in the Sahel and to have contributed to the “NIAMEY CALL FOR GREEN ECONOMY AND LAND NEUTRALITY” at Commission of Sahel Region Ministers for the Presidents and the BAMAKO DECLARATION ON THE BEATING FAMINE IN SAHEL.
- Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
We work rigorously with our main technical partners: FAO, CLIMATE INITIATIVES, World Future Council, Solar Impulse and World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, GGGI, Secretariat International pour l'Eau, Youngo and with the United Nations Foundation as a young climate leader. For a better fight against COVID-19, we are also working with several taskforce and various partners including SEME CITY.
Co-Founder and Managing Director