Smiley'z Mobile Kitchen
Smiley’z Mobile Kitchen Limited is a tomato processing company based in Northern Nigeria. By buying excess tomatoes from smallholder farmers, it reduces food loss and boosts farmers' incomes.
Smiley'z works directly with farmer cooperatives in Kaduna State. The farmers sell them their excess tomatoes, and Smiley'z processes them into healthy tomato pastes.
In addition, Smiley'z trains rural women in agricultural practices like cottage farming and cottage processing. They also offer trainings to caterers who want to set up their own product lines.
Farmers typically go through middlemen to access the open market. These middlemen do not pay for the tomatoes until they have sold them. A lot of tomatoes, however, rot before they can be sold. Smiley'z signs agreements with the cooperatives and buy as much as 65 per cent of their produce.
The processes are semi-automated, so there is a lot of manual work. Most of the staff are women from abusive relationships or fresh out of school and unemployed. They just have a basic education, or no formal education at all. With Smiley’z, they can increase their income by 50 to 100 per cent.