Connecting smallholder farmers to international markets - Story

With so much land available for crops, Africa has the potential to be a major player in helping meet with the increasing global demand for food.

However, 70 per cent of farmers in Africa are subsistence farmers.

With the right training, support, and access to markets, these farmers can increase their output and generate additional income.

600m

Africa has around 600 million hectares of arable land for farming

Our investment in Export Trading Group

In 2012, we invested $32.5 million directly to Export Trading Group (ETG), an agribusiness that connects smallholder farmers to global markets.

Since our first investment, ETG has built additional warehouses and food processing plants. When we first invested in the business, its turnover was $884 million. When we exited the investment in 2016 – having helped ETG accomplish significant financial and development achievements – the company’s turnover had increased to $2.6 billion. Farmers are now being provided with bigger markets for their produce.

How ETG supports jobs

Over the course of our investment, the company was able to create 2,000 direct jobs in its warehouses and food processing plants, to add to the 3,000 people it already employed. ETG also invested in the development of its staff.

“ They sent me to school to learn how to run the machine. I was given the chance and now I can say, ‘I can run the plant by myself, with my fellow Malawians.”
Adrian Singano, Operations Manager at ETG’s Malawi processing plant

2,000

2,000 jobs created

How ETG supports smallholder farmers

The ETG Farmers Foundation supports some of the millions of smallholder farmers in Africa by providing training in rural areas of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. This is enabling them to access new markets.

With our help, ETG’s Farmers Foundation was able to extend its reach and to better connect it with the company’s operations. The Foundation has now reached over 8,000 farmers.

“After I realised that in pigeon peas there is profit, I started growing pigeon peas, and now I am no longer reliant on my parents.”

Catherine Chibwana from Malawi

5m

around 5 million smallholder farmers across africa sell their produce to ETG