Introducing YAK Fair Trade: Our first partner in the agricultural sector

Today we are introducing a new partner coming soon to our platform: YAK Fair Trade. With this new addition, not only are we diversifying our portfolio of partners, we are also opening the door to an entirely new sector on Lendahand.

Key sector in Rwanda

With approximately two thirds of the Rwandan workforce being employed by agribusinesses, the agricultural sector is the backbone of the East African country’s fast economic growth. A natural consequence of this is that their level of poverty is heavily dependent on how well this sector is doing. Luckily, agribusinesses in Rwanda have managed to lift over one million people out of extreme poverty over the last decade.

While the sector has grown in recent years, Rwanda’s government has made a clear statement: the sector is not living up to its potential. This is the result of the many challenges this sector faces every day, including climate change, limited access to production technologies, limited government funding of the sector, and last but not least: limited access to high-quality produce.

YAK Fair Trade

This is where YAK Fair Trade comes in. YAK was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur couple Mediatrice Uwingabire and Janvier Gasasira, who have been working hard to provide affordable and nutritious products to their clients ever since. 

YAK is focused on the processing and distribution of grains, beans, maize, dairy and butchery products, as well as playing a key role in the process of high quality sourcing. They purchase most of their products from local Rwandan small holder farmers, process them in their plant in Kigali-Nyarugenge, before distributing them to their local clients. So far, they have already reached 65.000 farmers via 54 cooperatives across the country.

Making an impact in Rwanda

Adding YAK Fair Trade to our portfolio opens up many opportunities for their business and all the individuals who are at the receiving end of their supply chain. With the new funds that they will have access to, YAK will be able to purchase more agricultural products (such as maize and grain from small holder farmers) as well as the assets needed to expand their processing capacity. Obtaining these new funds not only benefits the livelihoods of Rwandan small holder farmers and their families, but also enables YAK to provide them with the necessary training and post-harvest technologies to avoid loss of production.

If you want to be one of the first people to invest in YAK Fair Trade, keep an eye on your inbox. You will be alerted once their first project has launched on our platform.

Get our newest blog posts straight to your inbox

Enter your email below to receive an email every time we publish a new blog post.