From Dream to Reality: Faranaya Launches Sorghum Processing Plant

In October 2022, Faranaya launched a processing facility at its building complex in Garu, northern Ghana. The launch of the facility is the culmination of a long-held dream by the company to eventually venture into value addition of sorghum. Since its inception in 2010, Faranaya has strived to aggregate sorghum from farmers within the catchment area and support them in enhancing their productivity. This is done by facilitating access to inputs, credit and extension services to farmers with the costs being recovered at harvest. This is key because it develops loyalty and most importantly a trust relationship with the smallholder farmers.

Demand for sorghum has been growing steadily over the years in Ghana. Faranaya in recent years has become a major supplier to Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), which needs sorghum for the manufacture of some of its products. Demand for household consumption has also been growing, prompting the need to increase production.

“Our inspiration to venture into processing has always been there from the start of the partnership with 2SCALE. However, when covid hit and we could not sell off the raw produce based on our usual trend, we decided that it was time to accelerate the development of the processing plant. It also makes sense to us as a business because the more revenue streams you have, the more resilient the business is from external shocks. A key motivation from us was also our 2SCALE partnership counterparts in Kenya, Shalem who started out as an aggregator but grew into a large processor. This inspired us to know we can also do it,” says Obed Asunka, Managing Director of Faranaya.

Process of Product Development and Launch

Before deciding on which products to launched, a market research survey was launched to assess potential market size and demand of the potential products from the public. Finally, Faranaya decided to settle on two products, blended sorghum flour and sorghum pop. The blended sorghum flour comes in two varieties – one from sprouted sorghum and another from roasted sorghum. For the sorghum pop, Faranaya invested a lot in product testing and development as not all varieties of sorghum can produce the pop. Eventually, they found that the 501-hybrid variety and a variety that is common in Burkina Faso which has been localized also sorghum pop. 

So far, the processing plant directly employs four people involved in blending the flour as well as in making the sorghum pop. The reception to the processed products so far has been very positive in the market with demand exceeding supply. A kilo of the flour goes for 10 cedis and 500 grams goes for 5 cedis. A bottle of the sorghum pop goes for 2 Cedis and the product is especially popular among children of school going age.

“Getting to the launch the processing facility has been a great milestone. However, we still have a lot of work ahead of us in terms of market awareness campaigns to develop consumer awareness as well as testing to ensure we create blends that people demand but so far, we are encouraged by the progress. On a weekly basis we mill 2-3 bags of sorghum blends and demand is growing,” explains Patience Anyebo, from Presbyterian Agricultural Services, the BSS of the partnership

As demand increases, Faranaya are focused on getting government certification and also expanding the processing facilities to cater for the projected higher demand.

“We have started processing on a small scale as we wait for the licensing and approval from the government to package and brand. We are also working on acquiring a second milling machine so that we can enhance processing of the blended flours but also have a backup machine in case of any machine breakdowns,” narrates Obed.

Commitment to the Vision

When the Partnership Agreement was signed between Faranaya and 2SCALE in 2019, it was envisioned that processing would be one of the objectives to be achieved through the partnership. In a very short amount of time the business has managed to achieve its objective of setting up a processing plant as well as other goals of provision of bullock services to farmers, empowering women to make and sell sorghum-based products and increasing the hectarage under eco-efficient sorghum.

“I would attribute the speed at which we have been able to achieve the setting up of the processing plant to the collaboration with 2SCALE and also our structure with the BSS. 2SCALE have been good partners because they have not imposed any ideas on us. We did a Design and Diagnostic(D&D) workshop where we looked at the ambitions of the business and this is what 2SCALE used as a basis for supporting us. Also the fact the BSS owns Faranaya ensures that we are always working in unison to achieve our goals and empower our farmers,” explains Obed.