Esther Gloria Arinaitwe has emerged as the winner of the Agri-business Innovation Challenge. She did this by introducing a innovative packaging idea for a popular local malt beverage – Bushera.
As the winner, Esther received € 20,000. The runner-up Hadijah Nantambi received € 10,000 with the innovative idea of Supa Green Storage while 3rd prize, for € 5,000 went to Joseph Male of Innovative Home-site farms
The regional team of the Agribusiness Booster received over 100 business cases and ideas.
The award giving event included officials from the Ugandan Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Uganda civic leadership represented by the minister of state for trade in charge of Industry, Dr.James Shinyabulo Mutende ICCO staff including the regional manager Froukje Zwaga, Enviu, Erik ten Berge, and FIT staff were present.
Esther’s business plan and idea aims at introducing a popular local malt beverage – Bushera – in a new form of packaging to the Ugandan market. She has identified the problem that even though the drink is popular among Ugandans, its shelf life is short. In order ensure a longer shelf-life, Esther uses PET bottles and thereby solves the problem. This hands-on solution paired with the fact that Esther has actually actively managed her entire supply chain was a very convincing business case to the panel of judges. Importantly, Esther’s business also involves small-holder farmers especially women, who will now have a more secure market for their farm produce, as the will buy the raw materials from the women farmers. Esther will enjoy the support of the regional team of the Agribusiness Booster (AbB) – an ICCO business accelerator program that supports agri-SMEs financially and, more importantly, with business development services.
The idea behind Supa Green Storage of runner up Hadijah Nantambi is the introduction of low cost cooling facilities. By using affordable devices new room cooling can be built. The room itself is built with local materials. Due to a lack of storage facilities, farmers are facing insecure demands on the market and customers are lacking access to fresh food in urban areas. Hadijah’s idea will improve logistics from the farm to the storage facility and from the storage facility to the supermarkets in the city.
The third prize was won by Joseph Male. He introduced a new distribution model for agri-products, high value fruits and vegetables – sold door to door, at high income customers doors in urban areas. Through multiple communication channels, customers are able to pre-order agriproducts on email or internet. These products are then delivered to the respective customer. The business case predicts increased sales and revenue to the farmers through this new delivery scheme and thereby pushes their productivity.
Source: ICCO
