Yolele
Organization Details
Yolele markets biodiverse and climate-resilient African smallholder ingredients like the ancient West African grain fonio, and products made from those ingredients. We are vertically integrated, with direct sourcing and agri-processing operations in West Africa complemented by CPG operations in the US.
Impact Story
We started Yolele to generate income opportunity among subsistence farmers in the West African Sahel. We focus on underutilized, climate-resilient crops like fonio that are grown only on smallholder farms, and that warrant a wider audience than they currently enjoy, whether its due to nutrition, culinary attributes, or functionality for food and beverage manufacturers.
We help farmers increase their productivity with a network of field agents conducting agronomic improvement trials and spreading positive learning. Productivity improvements translates directly into increased farm income. And we connect those farmers with local and global markets by operating industrial scale processing capacity that makes these ingredient viable (compliant with global food saftey standards and available at scale) for usage by even the owrld's largest food companies. Our farmer network is scaling from 1200 today to 40,000 and beyond in the coming few years.
Diverse Social Enterprise
The TRANSFORM Support Hub is committed to accelerating diverse owned and led enterprises to build more equitable and resilient supply chains.
