Small holder Castor seeds farmers in Africa form strategic alliance to generate market.

Clusters of small holder Castor seeds farmers in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi Uganda and Kenya have recently instituted a strong front to drive traffic to their Castor seeds produce.

Access to offtakers and the industrial market for their produce has posed a long time challenge to outgrowers of Castor seeds leading to poor bargains and slavish labour to exploitative contractors.

Castor Business Network gathered from the leadership of this new collaboration of outgrowers and producers of Castor seeds in 5 countries, who cordinates the activities of farmers and farmers market in their locations that a synergy has been formed recently in a meeting held in Kenya, which would improve the ROI, proceeds from Castor seeds sales and welfare of small holder farmers in Africa.

The group officially known as Castor Oil Processing for Export (COPEX) projects in Africa is an alliance of Castor seeds farmers, producers’ organizations, processors, and exporters to strengthen the Castor oil value chain at all levels.

This new collaboration comprehensively addresses challenges in the Castor oil sector by pooling their resources together to enhance the industry.

"Our activities includes training and capacity building for Small holder farmers, producers and processors of Castor oil Africa, increasing access to finance and inputs, and increasing opportunities to market, providing linkages to market information, and brand recognition." Says the President of COPEX, Mr. Chiegeonu Aga.

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