Here’s the latest in ESM’s regular series, Notes From Africa, which brings you the latest retail, consumer goods, and food and beverage stories from across the African continent. Past editions can be found here.
Egypt: Cartona Raise $12 million To Accelerate Its Expansion
In Egypt, Cartona, an Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform, has closed a US$12 million Series A round to scale up its service. The fund will be used to accelerate expansion across Egypt, expanding its product, technology, and services. Cartona, which was founded in 2019, aims to digitise Egypt’s conventional commerce market. The startup is committed to a cashless future and embedded finance.
Benin: Africa Negoce Industries Secures Investment For Expansion
Social impact investor Oikocredit has granted a €2.7 million line of credit to Africa Negoce Industries (ANI), a cashew trading and processing company in Benin. ANI will use the new line of credit to purchase, store and process the nuts into cashew kernels for export. The funding will also enable ANI to expand its cashew supply network and strengthen its relationships with international buyers. ANI works with more than 2,500 farmers organised in cooperative federations. It also supports local employment by offering 50 permanent and 460 seasonal jobs. The majority of its employees are women.
Nigeria: Lagos State To Set Up A 250-Hectare Cattle Feedlot
The Lagos State government in Nigeria is planning to develop a 250-hectare cattle feedlot, to be based in Igbodu in the city of Epe. The initiative is part of a public-private partnership aimed at boosting the red meat value chain, with a view to strengthening local supply. Nigeria's beef consumption requirement is 360,000 tonnes per year, with Lagos State accounting for about 50% of this demand.
Egypt: Government Launches Dairy And Cattle Fattening Site In Sadat City
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah has unveiled a dairy production and cattle fattening complex on 400 hectares. Based in Sadat city in the governorate of Menoufia, the site includes five dairy farms, housing 5,000 cows and a feedlot with a herd of 3,000 animals. It also includes a veterinary research center, a facility for artificial insemination and a modern slaughterhouse and processing lines for dairy products. According to the authorities, these facilities will ensure the production of 150 tonnes of raw milk per day and 1.5 tonnes of meat per production cycle.
Mozambique: Cooking Oil Unit Launched in Cuamba
In Mozambique, President Filipe Nyusi has inaugurated a $4.7 million cooking oil production unit in Cuamba, in the northern province of Niassa. Built by the Niassa Cotton Company (SAN), a subsidiary of the Portuguese agro-industrial group Joao Ferreira dos Santos (JFS), the new plant will process soybeans and cottonseed. It has an extraction capacity of 7,500 tonnes of crude vegetable oil per year and will also supply 3,000 tonnes of refined oil for human consumption. According to the authorities, it will provide an outlet for nearly 40,000 small-scale farmers in the region. The plant is expected to reduce the country's vegetable oil imports, which amount to approximately $400 million each year.
Tanzania: Government To Invest $1.3 million In Avocado Processing Unit
Tanzania's executive is planning to set up a Sh3 billion ($1.3 million) avocado processing plant in the Iringa region, in the south of the country. The new plant will have a processing capacity of 3,600 tonnes of fruit per year and is expected to generate 23 billion shillings ($10 million) in export earnings per year. It also comes at a time when the authorities are aiming to generate $45 million in revenue from fruit exports by 2023. Tanzania is currently the fourth largest African exporter of the fruit, behind Kenya, South Africa and Morocco.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest A-brand news. Article by Espoir Olodo. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
