SDM Case Study: LoryB, Nigeria

LoryB and DP Ventures, the largest of four entities under the LoryB Group, is an agro-commodity company involved in sourcing and procurement, grading, processing, and trading of agricultural products such as cocoa, cashew, sesame, sorghum, maize, and soybeans worldwide. Based in Kaduna State, Nigeria, LoryB sells to customers ranging from multi-national organizations to small family-run businesses. Ultimately, LoryB’s aim is to supply high quality agri-products that meet international standards whilst adhering to economic, social and environmental conditions of the farmers and host communities.

A key challenge is the poor quality of grains, failing to meet the food safety standards set by most international buyers. This is mainly due to poor farming practices adopted and post-harvest handling of grains.  In turn, this hinders access to premium markets and affects both the traders (SMEs) and smallholders’ opportunity for commercialization and sustainability.

Nestlé, a key off takers of grains from LoryB, is keen to promote inclusive development of four key value chains in Nigeria: maize, rice, sorghum, and soybeans. To this end, Nestlé is working to enhance the commercialization of African SMEs, in turn improving agricultural productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Nestlé’s ambition is to increase its local grain sourcing volumes by 75% annually through working with four local SMEs, including LoryB, and scale-up farmer numbers from the current 5,000 to 20,000 in five states in Northern Nigeria.

This SDM study sought to understand how LoryB could optimize it business model to meet the quality requirements of Nestlé while contributing towards improving the livelihoods of 20,000 farmers.