Aligning opportunities with local impact

We exported organic soy from Togo for nearly 10 years. It was a business that changed many lives and, at times, made a healthy income for gebana. But it's all over now.

It's not OK to import soy from a third-world country to Europe for animal feed, is it? That's exactly what we thought when the managing director of our long-standing partner Setrapal in Togo suggested that gebana Togo get into the soy business in 2015.

It's true that we were already soy experts back then, having been in the business in Brazil since the late 1990s. We had the required expertise and market connections.

After careful consideration, it became clear that not only would soy be a good business for us in Togo and an asset for gebana, but it would also support family farmers and improve the local economy. So we went along with it.

By 2016, we were exporting as much as 1'000 tonnes, and the outlook was positive. Three years later, we were nearly overwhelmed by our own success: Soy now accounted for 70 per cent of gebana Togo's turnover and we were purchasing organic soy from over 4'000 small-scale farmers.

Organic soy became a major source of income for poor family farmers

This figure is extremely important because, in the end, it was only by working with so many small-scale producers that the soy business became part of gebana's business. Before we started working with these family farmers, they depended on subsistence farming. In other words, they grew only as much as they needed for their own consumption. It was hard for them to generate any additional income.

"Soy farmers are among the poorest people in Togo. Many of them don't even own their land, they just lease it," says Michael Stamm, Head of Purchase & Trade at gebana.

The soy business changed the lives of these family farmers. When we visited their villages, we could see how much better off they were with the income generated from soy.

Loss due to mismanagement and negligence

But then the first crisis hit. Instead of turning a profit in 2020, gebana Togo was suddenly facing a loss of nearly half a million euros. It wasn't the market that caused the problems, but rather the lack of proper oversight and the negligence of the management team. The mismanagement went unnoticed for some time.

We then sent Michael Stamm to Togo as interim Managing Director to set things right at gebana Togo. Within two years, he managed to turn the loss back into profit and stabilise the company. Afterwards, he returned to Switzerland.

The story could have ended there. "We didn't have a good understanding of the first phase of the production chain," says Stamm. "Of course we knew exactly which village the soybeans came from, but we couldn't say for sure whether they were really sourced from the farmers on our lists, which were all on paper."

So we invested in better traceability, modernised our warehouses, hired more field agents and purchased from more family farmers. This automatically meant higher pre-financing costs, such as for seeds. At some point, the crisis in the organic market also started to affect the organic soy trade.

Then there were the stricter government regulations and another crisis that emerged from within the company's own ranks: We discovered inconsistencies with the cash flows in soy purchasing – but it was too late. This, along with the difficult market situation, led to an unprecedented loss for gebana Togo in 2024.

We produce chocolate instead of selling soy!

That was when we decided to get out of the soy business completely. As we don't want to simply abandon the family farmers who have benefited from our collaboration over the years, we're now looking for a company to fill the gap we are leaving behind. There are already three interested parties.

This marks the start of a new chapter for gebana Togo, focussing on cocoa and locally produced chocolate. We also want to sell more dried pineapples from Togo, first by following the gebana Burkina Faso model and working with external dryers to build up a larger customer base. We might then invest in our own system in the future.

We're forging ahead and will keep you posted.