90% of all produce in Kenya comes from smallhold farmers. In Kenya alone 15 million depend on their output. However, despite making up such a large percentage of Kenya’s total agriculture, the existing supply chains that serve them are inefficient, unpredictable and lead to food loss rates as high as 40-50%. Taimba’s mission is to radically rethink this supply chain, drastically cutting food waste and improving farmers livelihoods.
Taimba offers a food chain solution for smallholder providing predictable demand by more closely connecting farmers to sellers. The existing system works on an extremely informal basis where farmers depend on a buying agent visiting at a time that aligns with the harvest. If they are not fortunate enough to see an agent at the correct time they are at risk of losing huge percentages of perishable crops. It is this mismatch of supply and demand that leads to such high levels of food waste.
Now, with Taimba, farmers can either make a call or use an app to request the collection of their harvest. Taimba then stores the produce in their warehouses until requested by a seller. Sellers can then order directly from Taimba, receiving their produce just a day later.
By reducing food loss Taimba are ensuring that farmers can earn for all the food they produce, not solely what they are fortunate enough to sell to visiting agents. The Formalisation of supply chains means not just less food waste, but reduced carbon emissions as the total ratio of food produce to co2 consumed increases.
As part of Enviu’s FoodFlow program our objective is to scale Taimba alongside other local commercial companies to achieve our overarching goal of a 0% loss food chain.