“Sheer determination and a series of fortunate events have brought us here” 

Madam Glawdis Yao and Monsieur Ngouan Beni Kouame met as young students in university in Abidjan, Cöte d’Ivoire. After some years of courting, the two got married and started their lives together. Glawdis found a job in administration, while Monsieur Beni, with his background in food safety, went on to work with agro-processor OLAM.  It was this background in food processing that gave him the idea to set up their own company: SITRAV.

Chili peppers are a mainstay of Ivorian cuisine, but the traditional process of grinding the pepper with a stone was not only tiresome, but inefficient. The mashed pepper would typically have stones and grains of sand in it. The couple decided to start making their own ready-to-use spices. SITRAV began with them milling pepper and spices in the local market and manually filling and bagging it in sachets. It was an intense, tasking process, that yielded only the equivalent of $8 after a full, fourteen-hour day of work. 

They needed a breakthrough. A chance publication in a pan-African magazine by a journalist who had purchased their product and loved it led to SITRAV receiving their first flurry of attention. In 2019, they were invited to take part in a competition for entrepreneurs which earned them their first tranche of funding to expand their processing. They participated in further contests which led to more visibility and more capital to invest in their business, allowing them to fully convert their home into a full-time production facility. Now they had the foundations in place. It was time to focus on the technical.  

This is where PFS came in, offering the expertise that helps small and medium business like SITRAV to scale. Since 2022, PFS has paired SITRAV with volunteers from its corporate partners on several business and technical projects, as well as mentorships for staff and management. PFS has also placed apprentices who have had a year-long immersion with the company. Two of them have been offered contracts after their stint. 

Some of the projects have included a plant layout and modification project that has left regulators and visitors impressed. Another project with a General Mills volunteer helped them understand their business model which laid out the need for them to buy surplus raw materials when prices are low to store for production throughout the year. The project also helped them deepen their understanding of their margins and profit. A Cargill volunteer also helped them on a shelf-life extension project, which led to fewer complaints from suppliers, allowed SITRAV to expand their distribution and gave them access to supply mainstream grocery stores. Additional projects include a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) documentation project after which they have successfully passed 3 GMP audits. They are currently working on a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) project in the hopes of attaining certification, which will allow them supply bigger companies and multinationals, resulting in a huge impact on their turnover. 

SITRAV’s client lead, Bühler’s Marc Zipperle, finds them a dedicated and willing client. "SITRAV is working very hard every day trying to expand their business, make a living, and follow their vision. They have an entrepreneurial spirit that creates value in the community, and it feels great to support and be part of it. SITRAV is dedicated – they literally tore down a wall in the production facility to optimize their production processes.” 

Marc says he also benefits from this volunteer experience. “I find the idea of how PFS works very cool. It is a great idea at its core and a pragmatic approach for scaling know-how access for smaller businesses. Also, the cultural exchange is great. I had no previous ties to Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa. Now I do, and having a frequent exchange is a great personal learning experience as well! The client lead role is a role where you can learn a lot from actual experts. You are part of different projects that require different skill sets. I am currently learning a lot about GMPs and HACCP in more detail.” 

Today, SITRAV has 20 full-time employees, and 15 temporary staff. In addition to their natural powdered pepper, they also sell other local spices.  

Zach McGovern and Ray Mielke, two young financial analysts from General Mills in Minnesota, embarked on their first volunteer project with PFS this year. Under the guidance of volunteer Steve Berger, a retired General Mills employee and seasoned PFS volunteer, they set out to review and update the financial management systems of Lizhbrand Multicare Ltd, a maize milling company in Kenya. 

Lizhbrand’s operations had expanded since the business opened in 2017 and their financial management system was no longer sufficient for the company’s growing needs.  Understanding the need for a more robust system, Zach and Ray began by reviewing Lizhbrand’s existing financial management processes. They collaborated closely with CEO Lydia Mirugu, to establish a comprehensive financial process flow. This structured approach helped the team identify the various accounting units that required attention and management.  

Zach and Ray meticulously analyzed Lizhbrand’s production processes and associated financial records, breaking down each step to better understand how financial data was generated and recorded. This not only highlighted the inefficiencies in the current system but also helped them identify suitable accounting systems to replace it. The duo evaluated two potential software solutions: Odoo.com and Manager.io. They presented their findings to Lizhbrand, highlighting the capabilities of each system. After careful consideration, Odoo.com emerged as the preferred choice due to its capabilities and potential to scale. 

Zach and Ray went the extra mile by contacting several potential service providers for the company. The Lizhbrand team followed up with the service providers for demonstrations and quotations, eventually narrowing down to two options.  They eventually decided to contract with Odoo Africa as they were more responsive and offered competitive pricing.  

PFS is immensely grateful to Zach, Ray and Steve for willingly offering their expertise, which has enabled Madam Mirugu to make a well-informed decision that will help Lizhbrand continue to build sustainable business growth.

In 2012, three friends - Jane Maigua, Charity Ndegwa and Loise Maina, who had over thirty years of combined experience in entrepreneurship and agribusiness – came together to establish a macadamia nut processing and export company, with the goal of supporting smallholder farmers and developing local communities in Kenya. The trio set up Exotic EPZ Ltd to create a sustainable and inclusive agribusiness value chain, with a special focus on women and youth.  

Like many entrepreneurs across the world, they faced hurdles setting up their business. One of the challenges they faced was finding the right technical and business solutions for their company. 

This is where Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) stepped in, offering the expertise of volunteers from their global corporate partners to food processors in Africa. Since 2019, PFS has supported Exotic EPZ with a range of services such as process layouts and development, finance advisory services and mentorships for their management team.  

They were assisted in their most recent project by General Mills’ retiree Garry Hellmich, who helped them prepare for an international audit.  Exotic EPZ exports its macadamia nuts to several countries, including the United States. To meet U.S. regulations, they needed to undergo a mandatory facility audit by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and reached out to PFS for assistance. 

Garry was initially hesitant when asked to help Exotic EPZ prepare for the FDA audit. “I was a little reluctant to accept because FDA audits had changed a lot since I was a quality manager at General Mills,” he said. So, he reached out to a colleague who updated him on the requirements. After his first meeting with the Exotic team, he realized that while they had good food safety systems, they had no knowledge of the FDA. He came up with a plan to modify their existing programs into a food safety plan.  “From there, it was just helping them understand the format of an FDA audit, how to interact with the auditor, and how to prepare the factory for the audit. The team was great to work with as we prepared for the audit.”  

The audit went well, with only two minor recommendations, and the FDA auditor was impressed with the Exotic EPZ facility overall. CEO Jane Maigua shared, “The audit was a great success, and Exotic stood out as the best company among all those the auditor visited in Kenya. We are incredibly proud of our team, and the support we received from Garry over the period was invaluable.”  

Achievements like these reinforce PFS’ commitment to empower food processors across Africa to achieve excellence in quality and safety and thrive in a competitive, global market. 

Nigeria’s snack market has been flourishing, driven by urbanization and an increasing demand for convenient, nutritious snack options. With an estimated value of $1.5 billion by the end of this year, the industry has opened doors for innovation among local processors. AACE Foods Processing and Distribution Limited, a prominent Nigerian food processing company and client of PFS, saw a clear opportunity to expand into this lucrative market. Known for their high-quality spices, AACE Foods wanted to diversify their portfolio with a locally made extruded snack and reached out to PFS for support. In response, a team of volunteers from General Mills and Bühler was assembled, bringing their extensive food science expertise to the project. 

One of the key contributors was Caleb Heck, associate manager for Cheerios and adult cereal innovation at General Mills who has over 15 years of experience in research and development across multiple food innovation areas such as cereal, protein technology and Pillsbury products. Caleb brought a wealth of knowledge on product innovation and flavor development to this project.  Driven by a passion for community-building, he was excited to extend his skills to a global project through PFS. “I have been involved in local community volunteering, including Habitat for Humanity, and I think that volunteering with PFS is a great opportunity to take this interest in volunteering to a global community.” 

To kick off the collaboration, the volunteer team worked closely with AACE Foods to identify a product concept that would resonate in the Nigerian snack market. The team provided expertise on ingredient sourcing, product formulation, and manufacturing techniques suited to AACE's production capabilities. The project required creativity, especially with ingredient procurement, as the Nigerian market often lacks easy access to certain food ingredients.  

“Working with AACE gave me insight on some of the challenges that African companies can face in procuring ingredients and the adaptability they need to develop new products.  In the US food market, nearly any ingredient is available, but this is not the case in Nigeria; AACE had to be creative in finding the right ingredients that could be easily procured to make the new flavors and then I worked with them to help adapt recipes to these ingredients,” Caleb shared.  

After rounds of research and testing, the AACE team came up with a new, spicy cheese extruded snack called Jaracrunch which is made from corn and bean flour - a unique flavor profile that was largely absent from the Nigerian market.  

After a few safety incidents occurred at Fastizers Food and Confectionary Limited’s facility in Nigeria, PFS Program Manager Toju Ukubeyinje thought it a good opportunity to offer them an occupational health and safety (OHS) refresh.  

“Fastizers produces cookies, biscuits and other confectionaries beloved by the Nigerian populace. After a couple of accidents happened within the span of two weeks, I realized that Fastizers would benefit greatly from the expertise of an OHS professional who could guide them to identify the root causes and gaps and implement preventative measures across the production process,”  said Toju. Based on this, PFS recruited General Mills project and system engineer Javier Valganon on an ‘Ask-an-expert' (AAE) project to improve Fastizers OHS culture.  

As head of health, safety and environment at the General Mills’ San Adrián plant in Spain, Javier Valganon was a perfect fit for this AAE. Javier began volunteering with PFS to share his knowledge and experience with food processors in other parts of the world, he said. “I have always felt the desire to help to the extent of my abilities, especially when it concerns people's safety. In all the projects I have participated in, what I have always received in return has been more than I have been able to deliver, which makes it a truly enriching experience.” 

Javier tackled the project with a two-fold approach. His first focus was on the equipment – which within the parameters of OHS must be designed to be safe and have mechanisms to prevent harm to people. “Our immediate actions were to install the necessary devices on the equipment to avoid accidents during production,” he said. “The most interesting challenges we had to address on this project were those related to the availability of technology associated with costs, but these were satisfactorily resolved with the local team looking for alternatives, once we had established the bases for safe work. “ 

The second approach is instilling a strong safety and health culture in the company by increasing people's perception and awareness of risk. Javier considers this a more medium-to long-term approach, as his years of experience have demonstrated that this kind of cultural change takes place only after sustained, consistent effort over time.  However, the Fastizers team have been encouraged to continue to provide regular OHS training to all employees, tailored for specific job roles and risk levels. They have also been urged to maintain open lines of communication between management and employees regarding safety concerns, policy updates, and incident reporting and the use of visual reminders such as posters and safety boards to keep OHS guidelines top-of-mind. 

Working with Fastizers has given Javier a different perspective on how African processors strive to produce safe food despite the many logistical and financial hindrances they face. “Working with this wonderful team, I have come to the realization that thinking outside the box can lead to imaginative and simple solutions to common problems.” 

Toju could not agree more. “The combination of Javier’s expertise and Fastizers’ agility led us to unlock practical solutions that addressed the OHS challenges in ways we might never have anticipated. This is how PFS facilitates thinking creatively together to find solutions that make a real difference for clients."