Post-harvest losses represent huge wasted potential in African agriculture, with valuable food crops never reaching the market. EA Fruits and Farm Limited (East Africa Fruits) is a production, trading and distribution business aimed at minimising post-harvest losses by buying horticultural produce directly from smallholder farmers and delivering it to major local markets via cold chain logistics. In order to realise its business plan, EA Fruits required significant investment in cold storage infrastructure and logistics equipment.
In 2017, Africa Eats invested $75,000 in East Africa Fruits and Beyond Capital invested another $50,000. Below is an interview between Beyond Capital and Elly.
In 2017, Each Africa Fruits earned over $1 million in annual revenues, and in 2018 that grew to over $1.2 million, over 12x growth since Elly came to Seattle for Fledge4 back in 2014.
Below is a tour of the new processing facility as of mid-2019, with more construction to come in 2020.
May 2020, East Africa Fruits raises a multi-million dollar Series A