SUGECO Incubate wins GAIN’s Food Technology Innovation Prize

Jolenta Joseph, who won in the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, displays some of her products.  SUGECO provides time and space for youth to develop, start and manage their business enterprises. This Program is designed to promote innovative business ideas and cultivate business development skills to young entrepreneurs. Jolenta Joseph a nutritionist, agri-food processor and the founder of SANAVITA COMPANY LTD, and is one among the beneficiaries of SUGECO’s Incubation Program getting mentorship and coaching support in her business. SUGECO’s Incubation program is empowering youth to engage in the agricultural value chain by strengthening their skills and promoting formation of agro-enterprises.

SANAVITA COMPANY LTD participated in the SUN Pitch Competition 2020 and announced the   winner of ‘GAIN’s Food Technology Innovation Prize’ for providing food technology innovations that creates solutions that are affordable, safe and flavorsome for the value-added products. “This is really good news for us. We are aiming to end hidden hunger in Tanzania and this prize means growth for us,” says Jolenta Joseph, whose company uses Solar Dryer Technology to process highly nutritious crops such as Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP), Pro-Vitamin A (PVA) and High Iron and Zinc beans into consumable food products. 

The company has employed directly more than 18 young women and has worked with about 1000 farmers. This has also reduced post-harvest losses, raised the income level to small holder farmers, and ensured food security while improving their livelihood.  

“We are looking forward to expanding our business through investing in the establishment of our own processing unit so that we can meet market demand all over the country in supplying bio-fortified crops, value added products and employing more youth” says Jolenta Joseph  

Currently Tanzania is suffering from high rates of malnutrition cases (hidden hunger) and Vitamin A    Deficiency for children is 33% and Anemia for women at reproductive age is 45%. (Tanzania National Nutrition Survey 2018) 

“As a nutritionist I thought of an affordable way to deal with malnutrition is to promote these bio- fortified crops which are highly nutritious, so as to reduce malnutrition in Tanzanian communities -- especially children, whose high rate of stunting is at 31.8%” said Jolenta 

She has immediately been putting her knowledge into practice. In 2020, for the first time, Jolenta   participated in the SUN Pitch Competition and received a Prize of $10 000 from GAIN’s Food Technology Innovation Prize and AGREA’s mentorship prize for having shown innovation, creativity, value addition and impact in her pitch to improve her processing activities.

The same year, she participated in the Nane Nane exhibition and presented various nutritious products through SUGECO Pavilion. NANENANE is one of the annual agricultural exhibitions carried out in the country. It provides an opportunity for agripreneurs to strengthen their networking. Therefore, Jolenta got an opportunity to interact with other local processors, assess agriproduct markets, and develop new and improved products to boost her sales and competitive advantage.

Now a trainer and mentor herself as a result of the skills she gained from the Incubation program, Jolenta used her profits from the prize to increase production where she plans to share her knowledge of food processing.

Apart from that, in the year 2018 she was awarded the “Malkia wa Nguvu” prize in the Agribusiness category.  Malkia wa Nguvu-the award seeks to recognize visionary women of character from all aspects of life who surmount challenges in life to motivate, inspire, build and create opportunities, not just for their families, but to drive positive change in their respective communities.

“In addition to being mentored by SUGECO I am today a trainer in agri-food processing, thanks to SUGECO for the capacity building, as well as networking and interaction with other stakeholders through attending different meetings, exhibitions through SUGECO” said Jolenta