Dutch support to a Rwandan company that is involved in bakery
December last year, a Dutch organization, PUM, has sent an expert from The Netherlands, Jan Koeman, to visit a youth-led company dubbed Carl Group Ltd involved in pastry making. He assisted them in product development and management. The company is also supported by a Dutch funded project, GAIN’s Market Place for Nutritious Foods which assist them with business management and planning as well as market research.
Carl group LTD
Carl Group is a youth-led company, established and registered in Kigali, Rwanda, It was founded in 2015 from the idea of 4 young university students : Regis Umugiraneza, the director of the company and Head of Agro-processing cluster at Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF); Larissa Uwase; Ada Elise Irirashenono and Clarisse Murekatete. The company aims at providing innovative services to the Rwandan community. Their vision is to become the most trusted, efficient and innovative nutritious food provider in Rwanda. The company currently hires 8 permanent employees.
Product range and Market
For ending malnutrition among Rwandan children suffering from Vit A deficiency, the initiative came up with a Orange fleshed potato bakery producing healthy nutritious and fortified bread , cakes and biscuits with 60% of orange flesh potatoes ( containing a good quantity of Vit A) as a solid alternative to wheat based pastries. The bakery has also a target to meet the increasing demand for read-to-eat food in urban areas of Rwanda. Their biggest customers are local supermarkets. Their Fleshed Orange potatoes are sourced from 86 out growers from Muhanga, Bugesera, Kayonza. Their main customers for the moments include primary schools and supermarkets in Kigali. Their target is to reach secondary cities of Kigali in the coming 5 years.
The group won an award in 2015 during a competition organized by Dot Rwanda Business plan competition with a theme” Youth breaking the cycle of poverty”. The award won was worthy 2 500 000 RWF which served as a boost to their business.
Challenges
The young promising start-up which is still in the restructuring phase transitioning from traditional way of production has now managed to acquire a few basic small scale equipments like a washing and peeling machine, a boiling machine, a crashing machine (to make potato mash), a mixer, a proofer (used in dough fermentation) and an oven allowing them to work at small scale level.
However the group of youngsters still need packaging material with a fridge or cooling machine for a better preservation of nutrients. With a target to supply their products to the whole country, a spacious production facility would also be the best solution as renting is really expensive.