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Coconuts, Digitalization and the Future

2024-03-05

Female founder Ebun Feludu wants to bring the coconut value chain to Nigeria with her start-up Kokari. In this interview with Journalist Jan Rübel, she explains why she envisions every coconut palm tree bearing its own name in the future and how digitalization can contribute to this.

By Ebun Feludu

Ebun Feludu is the founder of Kokari Coconuts & Company, a Nigerian agro-processing company which turns coconuts into food and personal care products. She has been entrepreneur from her early days in college and has worked in the creative media space with over 20 years of experience.

All contributions

By Jan Rübel

Jan Rübel is author at Zeitenspiegel Reportagen, a columnist at Yahoo and writes for national newspapers and magazines. He studied History and Middle Eastern Studies.

All contributions

Ich bin ein Alternativtext — By processing the coconuts, Kokari brings another step of the value chain into the country in addition to cultivation. © Ebun Feludu

When did you first realize that digitalization and agriculture go well together?

Ebun Feludu: Digitalization is critical for every area of life; from running a home, planning one's personal life, or scheduling your calendar. Digitalization is an excellent tool to use in agriculture because it is critical to be able to capture and scale agricultural processes. Digitalization helps to do that.

Is it also a tool for fostering democracy and democratization?

Absolutely. I don't think there's any aspect of life that is exempt from the benefits of digitalization. Being able to capture votes, capture data of demographics and populations, and see how the data aligns with people's choices in terms of the leaders they elect…the opportunities with digitalization are endless.

How do you focus on digitalization at Kokari?

We farm coconuts, then we process, and the womenn distribute our finished products through our distribution channels. I'm currently in one of our distribution outlets, Kokari Café, and our entire system also sits on a digital platform that helps to capture everything from raw materials coming in to the raw materials going out to all the outlets. Our ERP allows us to capture data and have a streamlined system that allows for minimal human error.

Our entire system also sits on a digital platform that helps to capture everything from raw materials coming in to the raw materials going out to all the outlets.

Could you please give me a concrete example of human errors?

There is still a high level of human element to our work, even though, supported by digitalization. For instance, when we receive raw material and want to capture the data on our ERP platform, it still depends on the human workforce. If there's an error in scaling or in the inputted data – that's an error that could still occur even when you have a digitalized system of operations.

How do you manage to keep the value chain of the raw material you just mentioned in the country for longer?

We source some of our raw material from local farmers and from other farmers in West Africa. There is a lot of wealth in the coconut value chain, which is currently being exported. Our mission is to transfer this wealth to farmers who are resident in Nigeria. We started that with the support of GIZ. We have set up a nursery where farmers can pick up coconut seedlings from us and then enter the value chain.

Is it easy to convince the farmers in Nigeria to switch to coconut?

It is not easy because coconut trees last one hundred years, and it takes 5 years before first harvest. However, we have shown our farmers through our pilot project that they can earn money with coconut – even whilst they wait the five years until the first harvest. In that time, we teach them to intercrop the coconut trees with high-yielding, high-demand crops. We then buy those crops from the farmers and process them into finished products. Hence, in the short-term, the farmers can earn significant revenue, and in the long-term, when the coconut palm bears fruit, they also earn money.

What are these intercrops by example?

Legumes and crops that add nitrogen to the soil to enrich the trees. These crops produce two to three yields per year, making them very lucrative for farmers.

It's becoming a win win situation for them…

Absolutely.

Are these farmers taking advantage of digitalization?

Our pilot farm serves as a school, which teaches the farmers best farming practices that offer the best yield for each coconut tree. The farmers receive messages via USSD so that they are not dependent on data because many of the farmers typically do not have access to mobile data in the rural areas.

And is it possible to link even smallholder farmers with this?

Yes, we do work with some bigger farmers, but we also work with smallholder farmers. We work with them in groups to facilitate the dissemination of education.

Let's assume that one farmer has access to data, that he has internet access. Are your experiences transferable to these farmers also at large scale?

Absolutely. It is easy to include farmers who have access to data since all our resources are on a digital platform. So being working parallel with other farmers who have data would be seamless. However, what we try to do with the USSD is to accommodate smallholder farmers who don't have that access to data, this is why we created that opportunity for them.

To what extent is digitalization a tool for empowering women?

We have a project that we're very excited about – it is called “The Kokari Women's Initiative”. We are bringing women into the coconut value chain starting from distribution. Many women want to get into the value chain but may not be willing to invest as heavily as we have. This gives them an opportunity to come in with a verified and trusted brand like ours. Hence, the women are trained on the whole value chain, the ethos of the brand, and on the products – and can then use their social media platforms to sell our finished products. This whole network is also in the ERP. This digital platform helps us to see how much the women earn and how many products they have sold. Through their unique link, they make sales, and we can see who is best performing and which products are best-selling. The training program also includes a lot of digital skills as simple as, how to take pictures of the products with their phones. They are taught how to use the phone to optimize their experience as resellers and ambassadors.

You mentioned that some women may be reluctant doing investment. Is financing a general problem in Nigeria for agriculture?

I think financing is a general problem all over the world. It is a global challenge. If there was an abundance of resources and funds, everybody with a business idea would be able to bring that idea to fruition. When you want to start a business in agricultural processing, or primary production, a lot of capital is required. Not many people are willing to take that risk, so they will probably be more comfortable exploring becoming a distributor for finished agricultural products. Now, people can scale from that and go back into processing or go back into primary agriculture, but it's definitely a great way to start.

And what's your solution to the finance problem in agriculture if you would have the power?

Funding for agriculture should seek to support people with a good track record and support these people with patient funds. This is what I would do.

Is crowdfunding also an option for farmers?

Yes, and it has been explored in Nigeria quite a bit. Some people burnt their hands in this process. But if I wanted to launch a new product - and we have done that in the past - I'd say, "Hey, we're launching this product and we want to sell 10,000 units of them at X amount of money.” Imagine if I had 10,000 people paying me $20 dollars for a new product that I wanted to bring to market. That is $200,000 and data for 10,000 ideal customers. When we moved into our factory, we had to raise funds to pay for the factory space. We had a product and crowdfunded with a media campaign. The product was a five-litre pack of coconut oil. We basically promoted the offer and just encouraged people to buy it. People paid for the

product, and that helped us pay for the factory space that we needed. That is crowdfunding.

There are different ways to do crowdfunding. I like the way we did it and we would do it again in the future.

Do you see a scaling perspective in crowdfunding?

Indeed. Imagine if you have a product that can sell 10,000 units in a month through crowdfunding. That is a great way to scale. Firstly, you have acquired10,000 unique customers. That's fantastic data. And these clients have paid for your product before you have even produced it. Then you have access to feedback which you can build on to improve your product.

Imagine your company in ten years' time: Where will it be digitally, where it is not yet today?

Digital is not a ghost, right? Digital is latched onto real life and real operations. In ten years, I see our Kokari Township with over 100,000 coconut trees. A township that also has a school, a hospital and worship centres for the community. Every single one of these 100,000 coconuts has a digital identity and you can see the health and well-being of every single tree. You can virtually see how many nuts each tree produces every year. You can see the products made from the coconut trees' on the packaging of the finished product. Each tree even has a name. Our whole system is completely digitalized, and we can take virtual tours of our farm and even see all the different women that are affected by our work. Yes, this is a very exciting future.

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A Contribution by GIZ

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A contribution by gebana

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How a Tea adds to Forest Conservation and Food Security

A Contribution by Wallace Gichunge

The Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation is committed to the preservation of forests in Kenya: The establishment of so-called buffer zones counteracts deforestation by planting trees and tea. In addition to the production of environmentally friendly tea, the project benefits the resources of the forests and the livelihoods of the communities living near the forests, says project manager Wallace Gichunge.

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