The West African grain fonio could soon become an international cash crop as interest and investment pour in.
What is fonio?
Fonio is a term for two drought-resistant grasses cultivated for their seeds. The grain has been cultivated in Africa for 7,000 years and has been pushing its way into the mainstream since the late 2010s.
The grain is rich in B vitamins, and contains small but impactful amounts of iron, copper, zinc and magnesium. Fonio is also drought resistant and stores well.
Ingredients for a superfood
Fonio was once a luxury food reserved for royals and eaten on special occasions like Ramadan. In Togo it is used to prevent blood clots after childbirth and improve milk production for breastfeeding mothers. Its seeds are rich in amino acids that are not found in common cereals like wheat and maize.
For Forbes Africa Tiana Cline writes there’s a new super grain Californians are flocking to. The charge has been led by Pierre Thiam, a Senegalese Chef and activist, and his company Yolélé. Thiam and Yolélé have manage to put fonio on the menu at about 125 restaurants in the U.S. and on shelves at Whole Foods, Target and Erewhon.
Thiam explains to Cline the current landscape of grains in Africa is heavily influenced by colonialism.
West African farmers were forced to grow cash crops like peanuts and simultaneously forced to adopt broken rice from India into their diets. Broken rice is still a staple grain in many West African countries. Though it is technically a waste product it’s used in popular dishes like Thieboudienne. Thieboudienne is a tomato and rice dish from Pierre Thiam’s Senegal.
In New York, Garrett Olivier of Brooklyn Brewery is leading an international effort to bring fonio to the mainstream beer market, declaring it “the next big grain.”
Olivier’s international initiative, Brewing for Impact, has challenged seven breweries to creating beers that include at least 15% fonio.
The grain is still prohibitively expensive for small manufacturers, costing three to five times as much as barley or malt due to its inedible shell which requires processing by hand.
Thiam is working with manufacturers to reduce the waste in the fonio production chain. The manual de-shelling process can destroy 50% of the edible seed.
Foreign investment
If the fonio market continues to expand, economies of poor rural regions in sub–Saharan Africa could grow.
In May, West African investment hub USAID marked the inauguration of a fonio processing factory in Tamale, Ghana. The factory is also supported by a 10.8 million Ghana Cedis investment. It will have a daily capacity of 10 metric tons and hopes to engage 4,983 new female out-growers from the region.
USAID has also made a $1.9 million investment to boost fonio exports from Mali, alongside Pierre Thiam’s Yolélé and Mali Shi, a local company. Mali Shi in conjunction with Yolélé will look to raise an additional $11 million from private investors.
The project will create 13,000 agricultural jobs in Mali. Many of these jobs will go to women who already dominate in the cultivation of fonio.
Featured image: Photo by Gabbri.gabbri/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0
Edited by: James Sutton
