Africa Improved Foods (Holding) BV
East Africa,Africa Food and agriculture
Africa Improved Foods (AIF) is a manufacturer and supplier of high- quality and nutrient-rich complementary foods to combat malnutrition for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in Rwanda and the East African region.
AIF also aims to improve smallholder livelihoods through direct sourcing of some of its raw materials from local cooperatives.
The joint venture is an innovative public-private partnership to address malnutrition at scale, alongside Royal DSM, a leading multinational health and nutrition products manufacturer (as the operator) together with the IFC, and Dutch DFI FMO.
In 2015, CDC committed $10 million into AIF, through the Impact Accelerator, alongside other DFIs.
There are high levels of chronic child malnutrition in the region. National import barriers and stringent manufacturing requirements had prevented the local development of a suitable high-quality product, allowing community management of malnutrition.
Our investment funded the greenfield construction of a processing facility in Kigali to service World Food Programme (WFP) and local government contracts, as well as commercial retail routes. The facility meets the highest standards set by WFP and the World Health Organisation.
The plant will produce nutritious porridge flours (with added milk, vitamins and minerals) reaching, through the Ministry of Health, vulnerable population segments. These include pregnant and breast-feeding mothers, older infants and young children, especially in the first 1,000 days of their lives. A significant proportion of the plant's products will also be sold to WFP.
In 2017, WFP reached 1.7 million children in South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, and the Rwanda Ministry of Health programme reached 74,916 children and 15,344 pregnant women and nursing mothers. AIF buys its maize and soy from local farmers, and has also created a network of rural collection centres where smallholders can sell their produce without having to transport it large distances. As of 2017 nearly 9000 farmers were included in its supply chain.
Following our investment, AIF implemented world-class health and safety standards at its construction site.
A video documenting these best practices will be used to support demonstrations and training.
https://www.africaimprovedfoods.com/