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Kilimohai Organic

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The Kilimohai Organic mark is a certification for organic produce and processed products in East Africa. It is endorsed by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and is based on the East African Organic Products Standard (EAOPS). This certification is a product of the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN), an organization dedicated to promoting organic farming in Kenya and East Africa. It guarantees that agricultural crops are cultivated without the use of chemical inputs and undergo a thorough review and verification process by specialized inspectors to ensure compliance with the Kilimohai Organic production standard.

kilimohai organic mark

For further insights into organic farming, you can explore the Kilimohai website. It offers a range of training materials, case studies, and farming manuals.

Organic Awareness Creation through Social Media in Kenya

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Title: Organic Awareness Creation through Social Media in Kenya

Overall Goal: To create demand for organic local produce in Kenya, with the goal of stimulating a healthier diet and promoting environmentally friendly and income-enhancing agricultural production in rural areas.

Implementing Partners: The project is being implemented by FiBL Switzerland in collaboration with Kenyan partners  the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) and WOWZI.

Project Period: 2.5 years, from March 2021 to September 2023.

Synergies with existing projects: The proposed activities build on ongoing projects to strengthen organic farmers’ access to markets within the PMCA & GIZ Knowledge Hub projects, as well as the Bachmann Digitalization Pilot project that digitizes training materials in East Africa.

Targeted Outcomes:

Outcome 1 – Awareness creation campaign using Influencer Marketing

  • 30 Kenyan youths are selected and trained to upgrade their influencer profile with organic content
  • 2-3 major influencers are hired to run a campaign for healthy, organic food in the context of Nairobi.

Outcome 2 – Development of a consumer-oriented Organic Information Platform

  • 1 Organic web portal created to serve as the main reference portal for all Kenya Organic Stakeholders (Farmers, Traders, Consumers & Supporting Actors) providing trustworthy information on this topic
  • 1 organic commodities trading platform to facilitate B2B and B2C transactions between farmers, traders and consumers to improve trading and access of organic food.

Accelerating Organic Market Development in Kenya Project

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Title: Accelerating Organic Market Development in Kenya Project

Period: 2022-2024

Objective: The main objective of this project is to support the development of strong and inclusive organic businesses and value chains in Kenya, targeting both the domestic and export market, while also improving the capacity of the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) as a professional, business-oriented organization that offers high-quality services to its members, other sector actors, and the public.

Target Beneficiaries:

  • Direct: 2000 farmers, 100 traders and exporters, 10 input suppliers, 3 certification bodies, and 5 NGOs and CBOs
  • Indirect: 20,000 consumers, 4 county governments, and 3 research and training institutions.

Results:

  • The project aims to set up and improve groups certified under the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), resulting in improved market access for farmers through partnerships with actors along the value chain (processors, retailers, etc.) via the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA).
  • It aims to increase the number of business opportunities linking farmers with retailers and processors.
  • Positioning the Kilimohai organic standard in Kenya, and making it widely used by retailers, to make farmers’ investments in becoming Kilimohai certified, worth it.
  • The project seeks to support KOAN in becoming well-positioned to drive the further development of the organic market, with skilled staff, a lean and business-oriented structure and procedures.

Coverage: The project will cover four counties in Kenya, including Kiambu County, Kirinyaga County, Murang’a County, and Machakos County, with a total target of 400 farmers in each county.

Expected outcome :

  • Outcome 1: Strong inclusive organic businesses and value chains targeting both the domestic and export market.
  • Outcome 2: Improved capacity of KOAN as a business-oriented organization offering high quality services to members, other sector actors, and the public.

4TH ORGANIC BUSINESS PLANNING WORKSHOP 2022

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Date : Thursday 24th November 2022

Venue : Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Cultural Studies  (University of Nairobi)

Time : 9.00am – 1.00pm

Goal : Growing the Organic Industry through collaboration and innovation among value chain actors

Objective:

  • To identify interesting areas for organic business innovation and collaboration
  • To provide opportunity for improved networking among organic value chain actors in Kenya.
  • To create awareness about organic business support scheme.

Participants: Organic sector traders, retailers, processors, farmer groups, logistic partners and interested parties.

Summary

Whereas Organic farming is seen as an alternative to conventional farming which has negative attendant impacts on the environment, a lot of opportunities exist in Kenya’s organic sector both local and export markets. KOAN is committed to working with organic stakeholders to take advantage of the prevailing business opportunities as well as spur innovation for developing new ones.

The participatory market chain approach (PMCA) methodology has been piloted successfully in Kenya from 2020-2022. The Pilot reaffirmed the philosophy of collaboration over competition and several opportunities were identified and continue to be pursued. It is with this in mind that we invite you to the PMCA Phase 1 main event.

This event is dubbed as the 4TH ORGANIC BUSINESS PLANNING WORKSHOP 2022, will bring together actors (Retailers, Traders, Processors, Farmer Groups and others) in the sector with the goal of presenting interesting ideas that have been gathered, through market research by KOAN. It is our goal to see Functional Thematic Groups (TG) emerge which will engage and identify interesting business opportunities for joint exploration.

KOAN

ORGANIC BUSINESS SUMMIT: DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

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DATE: 24 MARCH 2022

TIME: 8:30 AM- 1.00PM

EVENT TYPE: Invite Only

ORGANIZERS : KOAN , KALRO , FIBL,  OACK

The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) together with its partners will be hosting a first of kind organic industry business event on Thursday, 24th March 2022 (9.00am) at the SportsView Hotel Kasarani and Zoom platform (use this link) . The Organic industry is the fastest growing subsector in agriculture globally, trading billions of dollars’ worth of products annually. This global trend is gaining pace in Kenya with people seeking healthy food amidst the Covid19 pandemic and food safety lapses in local food supply come to light. A burgeoning middleclass is fast becoming picky with food and export markets are becoming increasingly critical on sustainability, carbon emissions and pesticide residues.

The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network has been an industry leader making meaningful business linkages within the organic space. KOAN has assisted notable companies with strategic and much needed advisory and farmer linkage services that have led to millions of dollars’ worth of trade both locally and for export to date. In a bid to rapidly expand the organic space, KOAN has partnered up with the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Africrops Limited, the Organic Agriculture Centre of Kenya (OACK) among other organizations to foster organic market development by focusing on both the domestic and export market.

The Organic Business Workshop is an invite only event to present identified and explored organic business opportunities for the local and export market, focusing on organic products originating from Murang’a County. There will be opportunity to discuss and integrate new partners into the identified pathways within three main Strategic Business Groups;

I. Organic Vegetables and Fruits for Local Market,

II. Organic Herbs and Spices and lastly

III. Organic Fruits for Export.

We are looking forward to your engagement and participation in the workshop. Meanwhile, please take the time to register on the provided link,

https://forms.gle/2sqJyUFU3MYELiWNA

Latest date to sign up for the event is 23rd March 2022.

Resources

PMCA PHASE 1 REPORT

Project Report 2019_Kenya PMCA Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship Capacity on Market Linkage for Organic Smallholder Farmers x

 

Organic Herbs and Spices Business Group

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Organic Vegetables and Fruits for Local Market Business Group

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Organic Fruits For Export Business Group

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ORGANIC BUSINESS SUMMIT: DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

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DATE: 3RD DECEMBER 2020

TIME: 8:30 AM- 1.00PM

EVENT TYPE: Invite Only

ORGANIZERS : KOAN , KALRO , FIBL,  AFRICROPS LTD, OACK

The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) together with its partners will be hosting a first of kind organic industry business event on Thursday, 3rd December 2020 (9.00am) via Zoom platform . The Organic industry is the fastest growing subsector in agriculture globally, trading billions of dollars’ worth of products annually. This global trend is gaining pace in Kenya with people seeking healthy food amidst the Covid19 pandemic and food safety lapses in local food supply come to light. A burgeoning middleclass is fast becoming picky with food and export markets are becoming increasingly critical on sustainability, carbon emissions and pesticide residues.

The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network has been an industry leader making meaningful business linkages within the organic space. KOAN has assisted notable companies with strategic and much needed advisory and farmer linkage services that have led to millions of dollars’ worth of trade both locally and for export to date. In a bid to rapidly expand the organic space, KOAN has partnered up with the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Africrops Limited, the Organic Agriculture Centre of Kenya (OACK) among other organizations to foster organic market development by focusing on both the domestic and export market.

The Organic Business Summit is an invite only event to present an organic sector survey implemented in Kenya during 2020, and to move ahead in jointly exploring organic business opportunities for the local and export market particularly focusing on organic products originating from Murang’a County. The County has some of the most pristine and prime land with the highest number of organic farmers in Kenya supplying fresh fruits and vegetables. The county has great potential for both local and export markets.

Latest date to sign up for the event is 27th November 2020.

 

Resources

PMCA PHASE 1 REPORT

Project Report 2019_Kenya PMCA Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship Capacity on Market Linkage for Organic Smallholder Farmers x