Big brands like Unilever aren’t the answer to helping Africa’s farmers | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/31/unilever-africa-farmers-inclusive-business-agrifood-development
Linking low-income communities to the supply chains of large corporations - so-called inclusive business - has been a major trend over the past decade.
In food and agriculture, this means including poor farmers in the supply chains of food manufacturers and retailers, rather than a traditional trade via middlemen. There’s strong logic, given that there are more than half a billion small farm households around the developing world. Farmers get access to higher value markets. Food businesses get access to new sources of supply. Donors and governments get a better development bang from trade and investment.
But despite a huge and growing portfolio of successful pilot projects, there is evidence that under many circumstances inclusive business may struggle to get to scale. It can be a poor match to the realities of both farmers as suppliers and the businesses as buyers.