From fashion to fruit juice

 – Photo: Lisa Hilgers

The story of Colette Yèhouénou, entrepreneur from Benin supported by WorldVeg

Colette walks through the tall grass, slowly approaching the green and white painted building in Tori, a village near Ouidah in rural Benin. Passing an old baobab tree, she waves to her neighbour who is balancing a tray of fruit on her head. When Colette started building her third juice production facility in 2023 in Tori, the villagers were surprised to see a 41-year-old woman running the business.

A vision born from waste

Now, as she pushes down the handle of the front door, Colette reflects on how it all began. The idea to start a fruit juice business came when she realized how much fruit and vegetables were going to waste. In Benin’s hot, humid climate, fruits and vegetables must be eaten or cooked quickly. Refrigeration is rare in rural areas, and drying is challenging due to humidity. Processed into juice, however, they could be consumed for months, providing essential vitamins.

Getting the business off the ground wasn’t easy. Colette left school at 14 and never attended high school or university. Despite a successful 25-year career in fashion, she dreamed big and ventured into the food industry. She started small in Benin’s capital Cotonou, experimenting with new juice flavours. For a nutritious diet, she made juices from vegetables such as cabbage or carrots – a novelty in Benin. She also mixed fruit and vegetable juices to create a sweetness that appealed to children. Her juices quickly became a success.

The first vegetable juice production in Benin

As the business grew, Colette secured funding to build a factory in a prime fruit and vegetable production zone, one hour from Cotonou and its port and airport, close to a major road for exports to neighbouring countries. This strategic positioning paid off. The story of Colette Yèhouénou, Entrepreneur from Benin supported by WorldVeg

As Colette enters the building, her thoughts return to the present. She passes the changing room she has set up for her employees. So far, she has hired 14 women and 6 men. She strides into the production hall. Usually, the room is a buzzing hive of activity. Her staff wash and cut pineapples, mangos, beetroots, carrots and ginger on shiny, clean surfaces. They extract the juice, pasteurise it and bottle it, ready to be shipped to her wholesale customers in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and the Ivory Coast. But today the room is empty. Fruit prices are currently high, so she will hold off on her next order until they fall.

Fostering trust with farmers

Along with the business’s growth, Colette’s need for large quantities of high-quality fruit and vegetables increased. By placing regular and consistent orders, she was able to build a relationship of trust with the farmers who supplied her. Her predictable orders gave them security and access to bank loans. Colette persuaded the farmers to invest in high-quality seeds and to grow new varieties of vegetables that were more resilient and required less pesticide and fertiliser. Ecological production has always been important to Colette. She also runs her own pineapple plantation, which supplements the products she buys from the farmers.

Joining the vegetable business network

Colette is a member of a Vegetable Business Network (VBN), built around Jinukun store, an e-commerce platform and marketplace for food. The VBN strengthens relationships between market players. Through Jinukun, Colette is even selling her carrot juice to the cosmetics industry in Nigeria.

Colette enjoys the silence in the production hall for a few more minutes. She looks around, taking in every detail as her fingers caress the stainless-steel instruments. For Colette, this place is more than just a factory. It is her family’s future.

A family’s future

The financial independence it has given her has enabled her daughter to study agriculture and food processing at university in Cotonou. She even received a scholarship to go to Montpellier, France, to further her knowledge. Soon, her daughter will return to Benin to take over the business.

When Colette finally steps out of the building and into the sunlight, excitement builds in her chest. Where there are now fields of green grass, she plans to build a methanation plant. By fermenting the fruit and vegetable waste which comes with the juice processing, the plant will produce methane, which she can use as a renewable energy source for her factory. At the same time, the methanation plant will produce natural fertiliser for her pineapple fields. As she makes her way back to the main road, Colette wonders: What will she learn next?

WordVeg’s support

Vegetable business network
The Vegetable Business Network (VBN) approach, developed by WorldVeg, aims to improve existing business relationships. Each VBN is centred around a champion, such as a produce wholesaler. WorldVeg supports the VBN in developing a common goal, for example expanding product sales internationally, and in creating an action plan. Through trainings WorldVeg strengthens the skills of VBN members and links the VBN to financial and insurance institutions and government agencies to support the network’s operations. The Fund for International Agricultural Research (FIA) supports WorldVeg in this endeavour through the work of the Integrated Expert Mwasilwa Ambali.

For more information about Colleta, see…

– Building vegetable business in Benin, in the 2022 annual report (pp30-31)

– Download PDF here