Collective Marketing project for East Africa takes off

Introduction

This project, ‘Facilitating Collective Marketing Best Practices in Kenya and Uganda’ funded by the EU through ASARECA aims to assess the environment in which collective marketing is operating, create collective marketing learning alliances in Kenya and Uganda, undertake action research to test best practices and initiate a process that will facilitate collective marketing of produce especially from smallholders. The project will operate on the principle that market access enhances farmers’ productivity. Collective action will reduce cost of marketing farm produce but the main challenge how to mobilize farmers into cohesive and sustainable marketing groups.

SACRED Africa is coordinating this project in Kenya mainly due to the experience gathered during the five years of running the cereal banking project. It is against this background that it hosted a three days workshop that brought together participants from organizations variously involved in collective marketing in Kenya to share experiences and launch the learning alliance dubbed ‘The Kenya Collective Marketing Association (KMCA)

Issues affecting smallholders’ collective marketing in Kenya

The following four issues were identified as crucial to the success of this marketing initiative;

Matters on collective marketing that need attention

There are questions related to collective marketing initiatives in Kenya that need to be addressed by consulting with relevant institutions or by research. Answers to these questions may be part of the strategy to improve collective marketing. Some of these are highlighted below following the issues outlined in the table above: