CARL Group: Reducing Vitamin A Deficiency in Rwanda

 Photos used throughout the blog: Aliou Jabari Kamau Gambrel 

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Hello from Rwanda! The SMART team has spent this past week learning about the supply chain process of the CARL Group’s VitA Bread from farm to supermarket to table and learning about the recent history of Rwanda.

Around 200 smallholder farmers (mostly women) supply OFSP to CARL Group. The farmers receive the OFSP vines from the International Potato Center (CIP) and plant them on their small plots of land.

The SMART team visited two female farmers in Southern Rwanda and had a chance to see how important this crop is to many rural households for improved livelihoods. The first farmer visited by the SMART team produces 500 kg of OFSP on one small plot of land. CARL Group needs 50 kg of OFSP a day to make the VitA Bread.  In addition to growing OFSP, she also sells the vines to other farmers in the area. 

The second female farmer visited by the SMART team had a much larger OFSP operation; she had a storage facility, a plot of land dedicated to growing just OFSP, and another plot of land dedicated to growing vines to sell. The variety of vines that she sells is Kabode, it is the best variety as it requires less water and is better for processing. Overall, this variety is climate resilient. She is able to cut and transplant the vines twice. The farmer is the head of the household and growing OFSP has allowed her to send her children to university. 

After the farm visits, we went to several of the supermarkets where the VitA Bread is sold. Currently, the CARL Group supplies  25 supermarkets. Since the product was released to the market in May 2019, 9,000 loaves of bread have been sold with the CARL Group continuing to produce 200 loaves of bread per day. While we were at the supermarkets, we witnessed just how popular the bread really is because when we arrived around 3pm some stores were sold out and others only had a few loaves left!

CARL Group is just one of many youth enterprises in Rwanda. Fifty percent of Rwanda’s population consists of individuals under the age of 20. Although many African countries have a high percentage of youth, Rwanda is particularly affected due to the 1994 genocide. The effects of the genocide continue to influence the Rwandan community. This is one factor that has led to young entrepreneurs, such as CARL Group getting involved in a variety of businesses. Understanding the history of the genocide was important for the SMART team. Regis took the team to the Kigali Genocide Memorial and to watch a documentary titled “The 600”. The documentary details the liberation of Kigali and the eventual end to the genocide. Learning about the genocide gave the SMART team a better awareness of the history of Rwanda, but also propelled us to understand how the country has moved forward (in the economic, social, and political spheres). All these factors affect how a business can operate, therefore these cultural experiences in Rwanda offered both academic insight and personal reflection for each member.

The SMART Rwanda team has been busy at work this past week! We have been working closely with Regis, CEO of CARL Group, and his team on our individual tasks including grant writing, nutrient analysis, financial management, and marketing and branding. This blog post will provide some insight into the work of each team member.

Emily and Lexi have been working hard on creating a grant proposal outline for the CARL Group’s expansion. In addition to using OFSP flour to make their bread products, they hope to also include cassava flour. Both OFSP and cassava are meant to be used as substitutes for traditional wheat flour as they have increased nutritional value and are locally available. Rwanda currently has a high reliance on imported wheat which is driven by increased consumption due to lifestyle changes and urbanization. Our proposal requests the support of funders to help CARLGroup scale up their business as well as act as a facilitator for youth agripreneurship and training in OFSP and cassava. The ultimate goal of this project is to reduce malnutrition and increase economic development.

  Discussion of CARL grant proposal over breakfast regarding: Emily, Lexi, and Regis 

  Photos used throughout the blog: Aliou Jabari Kamau Gambel 

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Although Vita Bread is composed of 50% OFSP that is enriched in vitamin A, CARL Group had not yet determined the macro and micro nutrient content of their product.Thus, Robert first conducted a nutrient analysis of each of the ingredients of their bread to get a break down of the nutritional profile of Vita Bread as a whole. This analysis was then compared with standard daily intakes to give percentages of each nutrient for both whole bread and individual slices. This process was completed for adults, and is now being repeated for infants, children, and lactating women, which are the target audience of CARL Group due to the common vitamin A deficiency in these populations. 

Bichara worked on listing and analyzing the financial accounting tools used by CARL. The company uses an excel workbook developed by one of its partners that meets its needs. It is completed by their accountant and a tax adviser assists them in filing tax forms at the end of the year. Bichara and Lexi also developed order forms templates to ease the logistics between the production team and the accounting office for the requisition and storage of raw materials.

The team had the opportunity to observe the production of Vita Bread, and were asked to capture this process both photographically and in video format. Jabari had the opportunity to capture this process, and create a marketing strategy, and samples for the CARL group. Throughout this process, the positioning of the brand in relation to its competitors as well as creating a distinct CARL group product aesthetic were considered. Given the current success of the brand in its available 25 supermarket spaces, Jabari is working on branding that could allow the brand to expand to neighboring countries. The aim is to produce a flexible marketing strategy, which simultaneously creates a brand identity, that may be associated with a certain lifestyle and targeted consumer demographic, but is readily accessible and enticing to a broad spectrum of consumers. Below is one example, and a picture taken as the cohort explored the “traditional” Rwandan architectural style, specifically that of the king of Rwanda before and during the colonial period. 

Murakaza Neza – Welcome! 

The entire team safely arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills, and met our partner, the CARL Group. The CEO, Regis Umugiraneza, focused on sharing with us the history of the company in more depth to strengthen our knowledge of their mission and help facilitate our collaboration.

* CEO of CARL Group sharing the history of the company

Established in 2014, CARL Group is a youth-led private company with eight employees.

*CARL Group financial accountant giving an overview of their finances

They produce and sell bread made from Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP) a bio-fortified sweet potato highly rich in beta-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A. These products help to address the high levels of Vitamin A deficiency among young children and pregnant/lactating women in Rwanda. 

* Vita bread, the current unique product of CARL Group

CARL Group aims to focus on adding value to locally grown crops like cassava and OFSP to help alleviate nutritional deficiencies among vulnerable communities.They also seek to increase the income of smallholder farmers, promote commercial agriculture and support youth employment.

CARL Group sources its raw materials from individual farmers and cooperatives in the southern province in Rwanda, and also partners with various institutions for capacity strengthening and research purposes. The end products are processed daily by a highly qualified team of young visionaries. CARL sells the products in supermarkets and grocery stores across several neighborhoods in Kigali, primarily to low- and middle-income urban consumers.

Moving forward, the company plans to open stores in other parts of the country and reach more consumers nationwide. They are also looking forward to adding more products like sweet potato biscuits, pasta and cassava gluten-free bread to their production to reach a broader range of consumers.  

The SMART team is eager to collaborate with the CARL Group to develop a marketing and branding strategy, create record-keeping and financial management tools and offer insights into the human resource and operational strategy currently employed by CARL Group.

* The SMART team and Regis Umugiraneza, CEO of CARL Group in the bakery

We look forward to keeping you all posted.

Murakoze – Thank you!