Food Bundles

Food Bundles’ cash infusion needed;

• Technology production
• Marketing & training
•  Recruiting competent and talented staff to execute our vision.
• Upgrading Kigali distribution center and purchase of cold storage(truck, boxes) for efficient distribution of vegetables and fruits.
• Operating budget to acquire farmers produce on a weekly basis.

The idea is a personal story from my family and my education background. The marriage or combination of three factors. One when I was young, my family are farmers, so I was responsible for keeping records of farming activities in terms of employees of the farm, how much we paid them, when we paid them and records our sales, it was ugly. Back to my academic background, I did pure biology, science and I focused specifically on plants – botany and conservation. In my last year we had a module called sustainable agriculture which is basically conservation agriculture like farmers are destroying the environment for their own gain and that is a problem and because they have to farm and have food. So, there was a need for extension services to improve this and most importantly sustainable market. lastly was my interest in technology but it is important for people to understand how to use technology to solve problems. Farmers have problems, and building Food bundles which benefit smallholder farmers who grow vegetables and fruits, and consumers living in cities. 

Close to 75% of the 12million population of Rwanda is dependent on farming for their livelihoods, yet post-harvest losses remain a major challenge to many small holders countrywide. About 40% post-harvest loss is linked to a lack of appropriate storage facilities and markets, forcing smallholder farmers to sell most of their produce at very low prices, leaving them poor and vulnerable.

The current food supply chain consists of many stages, driven by middlemen whose implications impact the income and commercialization for farmers and raises the cost for consumers. In most cases, the real profits go to middlemen who buy up from farmers at almost giveaway prices and sell at very high prices. 

Food Bundles is a mobile-based technology solution designed to digitize the fresh food supply chain, right from farms of smallholder farmers to consumers in cities. By digitizing the supply chain, Food Bundles creates a resilient and sustainable market for smallholders reducing post-harvest loss, increasing farmers’ income up to 60% income and availing nutritious, affordable fresh food to consumers in cities, saving up to 40%. 

Our competitive advantage comes from working with agronomists and middlemen in the communities of farmers. We provide a larger and sustainable market to the farmers as opposed to the multiple middlemen who buy in small quantities, and we assure high quality, nutritious food at very affordable prices for the consumers. 

Food Bundles directly addresses the challenges brought by the pandemic such as movement restrictions that slump the supply chain. Food Bundles’ is built on a viable business model, and has a broad network of collaborators, giving it uniqueness and protection against duplication.

Food Bundles has a network of independent agronomists who support our farmers to increase productivity and also act as our aggregators. A farmer declares their produce using USSD technology available on both feature phones and smartphones, and gets paid on Mobile Money. The produce is collected by our aggregators who control the quantity and quality. The produce is stored at our collection centers equipped with cold-rooms before they are transported in cold trucks to our distribution centers in cities, also equipped with cold-rooms.

Central to the Food Bundles’ theory of change is the belief that by empowering communities of smallholder farmers and those they serve with tools to trade more easily will contribute a great impact on their lives, their families and their communities. The key assumptions of Food Bundle’s theory of change are: (1) if farmers have a solution tailored to address the barriers they face (post-harvest loss, inaccessible markets, income loss), then they are more likely to participate (2) If consumers have a solution to tackle the unavailability and of fresh food on the market, they will also participate.