Eliminating supply chain blindspots, boosting the bottom line

AB InBEV ZAMBIA + BANQU

Results

12000
kgs

One 53 year-old cassava farmer and mother of 13 increased production from 3,800 KGs of cassava to more than 12,000 - in one year.

1.5
M

Smallholder farmers have earned over $1.5 Million from the sale of cassava to Zambian Breweries.

11

Transparent and streamlined commodity purchasing across 11 buying sites.

Company
Zambian Breweries — a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) — works with over 2,000 farmers, who have helped grow a product range that includes clear beers such as Mosi Lager, Castle, Carling Black Label, Eagle, Stella Artois, and Budweiser.
Industry
Food & Beverage
Locations
Zambia
Employees
1000+
Started using BanQu
2018

Big Picture

Instead of barley as the primary crop for making its locally brewed Eagle Lager beer, Zambian Breweries uses cassava — an important staple crop in many parts of Africa. Despite its prevalence in both food and drink, the cassava market in Zambia is mainly composed of small farmers — 30% of which are women — who live marginally below what’s needed for subsistence.

Problem

In 2018, local procurement context exposed blindspots in the supply chain which included:

  • Lack of record-keeping among farmers
  • Low rate of access to banking
  • And hundreds of kilograms of cassava wastage

This was deeply problematic, given 1/4 of Anheuser-Busch’s sustainability goals includes smart agriculture — i.e., getting 100% of direct farmers to be highly-skilled, connected, and financially empowered by 2025.

Solution

Sowing a Better Ecuador through Traceability and Transparency

Zambian Breweries began buying the cassava harvest from the smallholder farmers through BanQu, whose non-crypto blockchain technology creates a permanent record of transactions that helps farmers build a permanent history of their harvest. The platform delivers virtual tokens that can be redeemed for cash when needed, or applied to other networked transactions (like paying their energy bill).

In addition, Zambian Breweries has been able to:

  • Streamline its buying process.
  • Audit the supply chain for any anomalies.
  • Create long-term farmer development plans that will strengthen their go-to-market strategy.

"The scope and empowerment that BanQu’s platform provides to small holder farmers is exceptional. The transparency and traceability in our value chain of cassava has been a game changer."

Agricultural Manager at Zambian Breweries

Chris Nicolle

Ready to get started?

CHAT WITH US