* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Experts in nutrition, researchers, academics and business leaders will gather in London this week for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)’s Symposium to progress thinking around infant and young child nutrition. The role of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing culturally acceptable, sensibly priced complementary foods is increasingly important in tackling malnutrition. Marie Konaté, Président Directeur Général de Protein Kissée-La (PKL), an SME based in Côte d'Ivoire explains why we need to encourage and supportsmaller, local companies to join the fight against malnutrition.
I established my company in 1994 with capital of just 600 Euros, basing myself in the heart of a people’s market in Abidjan. From such humble beginnings, PKL has grown into a major business offering fortified soya based cereals. Weprovide a reliable outlet for local farmers and now employ some 75 people at a factory outlet in Abidjan.
I was inspired to start up PKL as a way of doing my bit to tackle malnutrition and stunting among Cote D’Ivoire’s poorest people. According to the 2014 Global Nutrition Report, in 2012 Cote D’Ivoire had an under 5 stunting prevalence rate of 30% and 108 children per 1000 live births die under the age of five, almost half of these as a result of poor nutrition. These figures are simply unacceptable.
In Cote D’Ivoire one of the most common problems is that local foods are introduced to babies far too early.These are often very poor in the nutrients our children need to thrive, being typically drawn from the general family pot. Wealso have very low rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months – just 10% of mothers are doing this. It seems to me that, if we could improve exclusive breastfeeding rates in the first six months and develop good qualitycomplementary foods that were used in combination with breast feeding thereafter, our children could develop to their full potential and live longer, healthier and more productive lives.
PKL produces and markets a complementary food enriched with vitamins and minerals. It is a mixture of cereal flour (corn or rice or wheat) and soy flour. Apart from wheat, the raw materials are procured from local farms, while the vitamins and minerals premix are imported. The product’s composition and its dosage are suitable to cover the nutritional deficiencies that are common to West Africa, which differentiates it from larger generic brands.
Our infant cereals are sold in pharmacies, supermarkets and little neighbourhood shops in poorer neighbourhoods, which are accessed by a sales force which criss-cross those communities on motorcycles. Prices are significantly cheaper than the imported products of major companies by between 30 to 50%.
These foods come in the form of instant flour which, once mixed with water, produces a creamy porridge. This type of food fits perfectly with the local eating habits. To be sure to have the acceptance of mothers, we deliberately chose ingredients, texture, branding and packaging that reflected and adhered to local traditions, to increase the attractiveness of the products.
In common with all SMEs competing in a world of big business and highly recognisable global multi-national brands, PKL faced numerous challenges establishing a foothold in Côte d'Ivoire’s marketplace.
The greatest challenges we’ve faced include access to funding to expand and develop our products, distributing our products to the consumer and overcoming the inherent distrust of African consumers and retailers to locally manufactured produce. Lack of support from the State and local banks, with punitive taxation and interest rates were a particular issue as well.
We have overcome many of these obstacles with timely and welcome support and technical assistance from a $2 million grant from GAIN, hard work, a competent and dedicated team and sound management of the company and its resources according to international standards.
When PKL was developing our product, we appealed to experts in nutrition coming from French universities and research centres who knew the challenges of working in Africa. They helped us to develop the best formulas on the basis of the agricultural raw materials cultivated in abundance in Côte d'Ivoire such as corn and rice. Subsequently, with GAIN’s expertise, we have significantly improved the formula in terms of fortification with vitamins and minerals. GAIN also assisted us in improving packaging so that it conforms to WHO standards and creating a more diverse range of pack sizes, which have increased and improved consumer choice.
PKL’s success over the past 21 years demonstrates that there is an important role for SMEs to play in confronting and tackling malnutrition. The road to success has been anything but straight and true, however, and PKL has learned some valuable lessons along the way.
First and foremost, it is not possible to prosper by producing infant cereals exclusively in a poor country like Côte d'Ivoire. Other food products have to be developed to support the activity until it can reach substantial sales volume. For example, PKL produces semolina and flour from corn for local food industries, alongside its infant supplement range.
It is also important to always promote local agricultural raw materials and take account of the food habits of populations so that they more readily adopt complementary foods or any fortified food.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, partners such as GAIN are essential to accompany this type of project, especially in the first three to five years. The technical assistance, knowledge, contacts and financial support NGOs can bring to a fledgling enterprise are invaluable and more international organizations should be supporting these initiatives.
