Adrian is joined by two friends who are some promising young and up and coming Entrepreneurs in Ghana from the Agriculture space; Nana Kofi of Merdeo Foods and Gideon Awelana-Bulase of The Honey Palace. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities in the agricultural industry, the impact of technology, real estate, and climate change on farming, and the innovative solutions these entrepreneurs are bringing to the table. From supply chain issues to exciting expansion plans, get ready for an eye-opening conversation that will leave you inspired and informed about the future of agriculture in Africa.

Gideon Bulase was born and raised in Achimota, Ghana. His passion for business and entrepreneurship began when he met a cousin at Achimota Mall who introduced him to the world of honey production. Intrigued by the idea, he accompanied his cousin to the market to buy ingredients and learned more about the honey business. From that moment on, Gideon was hooked. He began to research and study the honey industry, eventually starting his own small honey production business. Today, Gideon is a successful entrepreneur and proud owner of a thriving honey business, thanks to that chance encounter at Achimota Mall.

Nana Kofi launched Merdeo Foods, a procurement platform linking farmers with urban vendors in Accra and providing data solutions, on back of being a University student, following his national service completed with ZeePay.

In this episode you will learn:

- The impact of technology penetration and slow acceptance in the agricultural industry.

- The encroachment of real estate development on farmlands and the potential for future food scarcity.

- The influence of climate change on agriculture and the hope offered by advancements like vertical farming.

- The encouragement for entrepreneurs to enter the agriculture industry to address the current challenges.

- The challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship in agriculture, demanding a realistic mindset.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

04:12 Founder of Merdeo Foods connecting farmers & vendors.

06:21 Ghanaian business and mentoring young entrepreneurs.

12:29 Frustration with unreliable pricing, entrepreneurial mindset focus.

14:50 Warehouse adding wind turbine for produce preservation

16:59 Unique, affordable digital POS system for restaurants.

20:04 Bees feed on various tree sources. Monoflora honey.

25:46 Supply chain challenges, including government compliance issues.

26:47 Beehive funding, challenges, expansion in farming operations.

29:36 Starting day early, prioritizing meetings, valuing training.

35:23 Encouraging technology growth, but acceptance is slow.

36:51 Warning of hot 2025; hope in technology

40:02 Entrepreneurship is hard but rewarding. Accept it.

44:16 Outro

Special thanks to Workspace Global

Season 6 Sponsors: Workspace Global (connects you to remote creative teams that offer a variety of design, digital and development services to help you build and grow your brand.)

Follow Gideon and The Honey Palace

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gideon-awelana-buluse-494699182/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_honeypalace/

Follow Nana Kofi and Merdeo Foods:

Website: https://www.merdeofoods.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-kofi-sarpong/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merdeofoods/

Watch season 6 episode 1 with Twi Learning Center: https://youtu.be/6kuFxHScmLk?si=RjHXBeaT1eQHFzKV

Catch up with Season 5 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnqpgGxTAXg&list=PLJUVirAfWnNoGiJNHHWm6aYTUUberuD5V

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About The Sound of Accra Podcast

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For almost 5 years, we have been championing global Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurship and Creators through podcasting. We've achieved 10s of thousands of audio downloads worldwide and published well over 150 episodes to date.

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Hey there, everyone. My name is Adrian Daniels. Welcome to the Sound of Accra podcast.

If this is your first time listening, this is a show where we speak with

top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs and creators worldwide with the aim

of leaving you behind with meaningful takeaways that you can apply in your life business

and career. For today's show notes, I'd like

you to head over to

thesoundofaccra.com/agritech

That's thesoundofaccra.com/agritech. For all

of today's show notes, key wisdom notes, references and

links from today's episode. Alright. Just some housekeeping. For watching

on YouTube, hit the sub sub subscribe button whilst you're here. Hit the like

button, and leave a comment. Let us know what you think of today's conversation. It's

been very very insightful conversation. Just you know

talking to some disruptors in the agriculture space and

and the food space as well. And if you're listening on the podcast platforms, whether

it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a review. A Firestar

review is very much appreciated. You can even hit us up on

info@thesoundofaccra.com, for any kind of,

feedback that you have for us. Okay. Cool. So we're gonna move on today's

episode. So as you can see, I'm not joined by 1, but by

2 guests today. So I have Nana

Koffi, who is the, co founder or founder actually of

Merdeo Foods. And I'm also joined by Gideon who's the founder of the Honey

Palace. Thank you. Thanks for coming on the show guys. Really appreciate it.

So I don't know where we where we kicked this off because we got 2

in the hot seat rather than 1. But just I'll probably just kick off in

a traditional way. So I would just like both of you just to, share the

audience. Actually before we do it actually I I was gonna share with you guys

what they do because I think what these 2 guys do are brilliant. We

met to the we met to the Ghana ecosystem.

Ghana ecosystem. We started Mixer, wasn't it? Yeah. And I think maybe a couple weeks

ago or so. And, yeah, these guys are doing some

very interesting things in their space. Of course, you can see a massive

bee on Gideon's t shirt on his cap. Of course,

he is, you know, he he produces honey. We're gonna tell you a bit more

about what he does. And of course, we've got Nana Koffi over here. He's doing

some very interesting space in hospitality and the farming

agriculture space. We're gonna tell you more about what he does as well. But yeah

guys welcome. Thank you for coming on. Yeah. How did you

find the event? Because we met at the, both of you both of you met

at the the Ghana Mixer, startup event. How did you guys find the

event? Oh, Gedoon. It was great. Honestly, it

was it was amazing. And I think the good thing was the fact that I

met a lot of, familiar faces, so it made it quite easier for

me. And so, it was a great it was a great start for the year.

Yeah. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. I really loved the Chop Chops. Like,

it was it was amazing. The their meals were were delighting

and more so you could just like Gideon said, you can meet

amazing other entrepreneurs doing something similar, what you're doing or see how best

you guys can collaborate. So it was something for

us for us, we're looking forward to that and also a great start.

Brilliant. I'm I'm actually Yeah. I was blown away by the event,

but I wasn't blown away by the fact that they didn't give me any chop

chop. They just gave me water, but didn't get to the food. I saw food

going around. And I'm like I saw food going around again and again. I'm like,

what about me? I think even Alex from menu finder was What was yeah.

He's a food he's got a food company. I think I kid you not. I

think he used his own app to get food because as I was leaving, I

saw him eating a hamburger. So I don't know what you did.

Ghana Digital Centre, I don't know what you guys did but you didn't give me

food. I'm not happy about that. I had to go home hungry. But anyway, it

was still worth coming along to the event to meet at least these 2. So

it was a event that was done pretty well. But, yeah,

that was a really nice intimate event. And, of course, you know, I met both

of you there and some others as well. Shout out to Alex and Many Fine

Africa. He was also at the event. Akua and Naomi Mentor for season 5

bumped into it over there. And Emmanuel Gamal, I missed him. I missed him.

Apparently when I left, he came. He's from season 1. I missed him.

But yeah, these are all great people. So let's get straight into it. So give

give the audience a quick 60 second pitch about what you guys supposed to do.

I wanna put you guys in the spotlight today as, sort of Ghana's tops,

agriculture tech startups. Okay. So hi,

everyone. Just like Adrianne said, I'm Nana Kofia Freya

Asapin. I'm the founder of Medio Foods. And we are

building a procurement platform that leverages

technology to link local farmers directly with

urban vendors and restaurants so we can provide them with quality

fresh produce at their doorstep. But more importantly,

we are using technology to provide cloud data

solutions, such as data analytics, eventually management

software, so that these restaurants can be more empowered to do

their business well, and we do all their procurement for them.

Brilliant. Next, Gideon? Yes. Thank you, Gideon.

I work with Honey Palace Yeah. As a team lead.

At Honey Palace, we are the leading honey brand, that we can talk about in

Ghana here, and we currently work with 250 beekeepers

across the northern territory and also the

region. And we currently have about 7 different type of

harmonies that we are having at our production house.

So we work to protect the environment, number 1, restore

the nature, number 2, Combat climate crisis, number 3.

And reduce real poverty, number 4. And serve families

with Ghana delicious honey. So that's basically what we do at the

honey palace. That's the part I'm interested in. The the the delicious honey, isn't it?

Yeah. Everything else is kind of irrelevant. I'm joking. Thank you. But, yeah.

Wow. 7 different types of honey. We're gonna talk about that, you know, in just

a moment. And, you know, the one for you ordered the beehive 1,000

of beehives. Crazy. Crazy stuff. Reminds me of, the the My

Girl movie back in the day when, Macaulay, Coking or whatever got

stung by the bees. But anyway, let's let's continue.

So I wanna kind of put the spotlight quickly on you, Nana Nana Koffi

because, actually, you guys are good both. Actually,

one thing I wanna mention about this episode is that both of these guys are

actually also happy to be good friends. Would you share how you guys know each

other? It's appropriate. It's appropriate.

So what happened was, we we both, applied for what we call the

PKM Abing Scholarship Program. Mhmm. And of course,

anyone who's a Ghanaian and is oppressed with business knows that

PK was, an astute business and is still an astute

businessman who founded a UT Trust Bank and many

other, holdings under under his his company.

For for that matter, he wanted to start something so that he can mentor

young people to become like him, and, of course, to make more impact. So we

went through the process, and then luckily, we were both selected as the top

20 candidate out of over 1500 candidates. It was really

competitive. And fast forward, we went to this military program,

and guess what? He sees me and I'm, you know, who is this

guy? And I'm I'm so scared. I was so scared at the military camp,

and he was just giving me morale. And so we happened to be under the

same camp, tent, because we were grouped into tents, and we had to sleep in

a jungle. And that's where I stayed. In the jungle? Yeah. What?

We had to sleep in a jungle. Yeah. Ghana here? In Ghana

here. And since then, we became

very good friends. Oh, wow. What a story. Remarkable story.

Speaking of remarkable stories, I'm gonna come back to you. Right?

What's how did this whole business start? Because I know it's a beautiful story. Would

you like to share with the audience? As it's kind of quite a very

it's a long story, but very equally interested. Yeah.

So it's not a long story. Yeah. So see. I understand.

But it started somewhere in 2017. Right? And it

got incorporated in 2018, right, under a different

name, and it has gone through a transitions of names into now becoming the honey

palace that everyone knows about. Yeah. But it started with me meeting one of my

cousins at Achimota, the the mall, Achimota Mall

at, Latomita wasn't in that down there.

And we met, and she was gonna do a prepare for me, actually. Hey.

So I met with to go with, with her to the market, the only market

to buy ingredients for her to go do that. And when I met her, she

was holding some bottles of honey. I was like, wow.

What is this? And she said, this honey is so fine. So this honey, how

much, you know, do you sell? And she said, 20 per 1. And I was

like, okay. Fine. Jokingly, okay. If I sell them, how much will you give me?

And she said, I'll give 5 per 1. So I said, woah. That's

okay. So I took them, and I sold them before we

wouldn't even get the market. If you notice distance between the

Mhmm. And the dummy market Yeah. Yeah. You you

realize that there's not really much distance. And I remember I sold the 5

the first 5, bottles at the taxi station just around that place.

And then when you move forward small, there's a a Wason Bay on the

left, and I sold the other 5 and even had a preorders. Wow.

From that place. You have to get the selling. So Come on. Come on. We

don't have to talk. So, like, from there, I told her,

anytime once you have honey, call me. I'll sell it for you. And so to

speak, like, I enjoy sales. Sales is something that, that's what I do, and I

love it. Right? So, from there, I think along the lines, she stopped

actually herself. Oh, no. So I was like, wow. This is something that I need

to and I've always been thinking about what I can do for the north. I

mean, because from where I come from, I've always been thinking, okay. What

can I do to bring some sort of, evolution and and economical

evolution? Where are you from in where are you from in the north? The north.

Yeah. Upper East region. Up in Rongeshu. So when I saw the honey, so

a thought came to me that I could find this is something that I can

do. This is something that I can use to empower people. So I then

send message across to my communities. If you can harvest

honey, I'll sell it for you, and you make money. Mhmm. So, basically, that's

how the honey space or the honey, palace started from there. It was

then King Gideon honey, then it's

honey. King Gideon honey. You know? And then,

then eventually, it became the Honey Palace in 2022.

Wow. Then we launched our first home at Dominique Latu. In fact, the first

honeycomb in West Africa, so to speak. You know? Is it still there? Do you

still have a showroom, honeycomb? Yes. At Dummypla 2. And now last year, 2020

3 November, we just opened our new products in house, the honey products in

house. The only honey products in house actually must have spoken in a way at

Identify for her. That's what we are. So, we are looking

forward to the future. We don't know what it holds, but we know it's a

little greater things. Amen. That God's grace is gonna be great.

No. That's basically about Hamadah. That's an incredible story. It really is.

And he we were talking about this off air that he has a you have

a great story and I'm I'm glad that you kind of shadowed the audience. I'm

sure the audience can be inspired by that. And you've got a great story as

well, don't you Nana Coffee? In terms how you got into media foods. So

I know that the 1 year national service is something that you know everyone in

Ghana has to do. And some people may kind of like run away from it.

Some people may kind of like be intimidated by it. But I like your

attitude because with the 1 year national service, you look at you look at it

in a perspective of entrepreneurial opportunity. So just to talk

us through your your 1 year. I believe you did it with Z Pay. And

you you looked at as opportunity rather than, you know, like something that will

set you back. Yeah. Yeah. Indran, right on that. So,

when I was going for my national service, prior to being a national service, I

was a student producer. So it's a Gen Z term that

signifies someone who is a student, but at the same time trying to do some

entrepreneurial ventures. Yeah. And so I started a business, a restaurant

business back on campus. It was called Obama Beans. Mhmm. And when I

was trying to do Obama Obama. The president of the office.

Yeah. I mean, that I think during those

times, I think that's when president Obama was still

Pop Lab, you know, being the first black American president. So we we said, okay,

why don't we name him name the restaurant after him? Oh, wow.

And How did he know?

Yes. And what happened was we started to sell what we call Gobe,

plantain and beans, but what we wanted to do different was to add some salad,

onions, because us at that time, it wasn't popular. So salad,

onions, and stuff like that. And 2 years

after, it had to collapse because we were facing some struggles,

which currently Medway is trying to solve. You want me to

mention the problems we faced? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. So one way one

problem we were facing was that unreliability of pricing. So you go

to the market today, the the plantain you would want to get is

maybe 25 Ghana cedis. You have on in your pocket 20 Ghana

cedis. What do you do? It was very frustrating. Sometimes you have to come back

to the restaurants and tell our customers that, oh,

I mean, in in to it, it's the the beans and plantain is finished.

So I then told myself that I'm really going to focus in getting

a a place that would more or less inculcate

in me the entrepreneurial mindset. And so

I started to lobby among my friends and then

try to ask if I can get any opportunity. And lo and behold,

there was one guy called Alex. You know, whoever hears peace, shout

out to him because he gave me the opportunity to, apply for

the Z Pay. And so I went in, I met Andrew

Ticci. He has been a wonderful mentor to me. I mean, I went

to him and he said, he asked me why I really want to come here.

And I told him, I really want to be an entrepreneur, and I've learned a

lot about what he does at Z Pain. He's the founder, right? He's the

founder. Mhmm. And he was like,

Charlie, boho, boho, boho. You know, he was just trying to make some jokes

and we ended up being very good friends. And I

I must say it was Andrew who gave me the opportunity to serve my

have my YNA national service at Z Page. Shout out to Andrew. Yeah. Yeah.

Haven't met me, but I'm sure that'll happen eventually. Yeah. Because Z Pain is doing

really well. Yeah. Really, really well. That's amazing. That's amazing. So I think both

of you I mean, what you have in common is great stories in terms of

how you got to where you got to. And they were both I mean,

I think for you, Gideon, it wasn't so much a problem solved. It was

more about a passion that you had. And now it's now you have a

purpose behind what you're doing. And with you, Nano Coffee, it was

more about a problem that you wanted to solve, and now it's, you know, a

fully fledged business that you've got great Exactly. Yeah.

So tell so listen so talk about, you know, what made your food stars

as of present day. So of course, you've solved this problem now in terms of

like the stock issue Mhmm. And stuff. Tell us what Medio Foods

does. Yes. So we currently have our warehouse at Adenta.

Funny enough. So that's how come we are still we're good friends because

his warehouse is at Farfohah and mine is at, Oyerifa.

Mhmm. And so we have this warehouse where now we are trying to inculcate

the use of wind turbine because that's what will really make us

stand out in the market. So we want to put in a wind turbine to

more or less preserve the produce that we get from farmers

for as long as maybe 30 days. Yeah. So that's currently in

the pipeline. That's what we're doing currently. And also

going to put on our platform the the addition of

other supplies because we believe we cannot do this all by ourselves. Mhmm. We

need to collaborate with other suppliers, other distributors in the agricultural

supply chain so they get onto our platform so that they can also be able

to sell to our network of restaurants. Really. So that's also something we're doing in

the pipeline. Yeah. Currently, we have 7 to about 20 restaurants, including the Gold Coast

restaurant,

Ada Kings Restaurant, Chop Shop,

Eric Eric Shop. And then looking at the other

smaller indomie sellers too, we also look at them. Yeah. Yeah. And then

these smaller comp or, like, I'll call them food vendors. So

Yeah. AntileZy, something like that. So that's what we're

currently doing. Okay. So you wanna solve, like, the, you know, just the whole

kind of stock hospitality kind of issue of Yes.

Yes. Not right now. Yes. So we are trying to ensure that

restaurants and food vendors don't need to go through the struggle of going to

the market to haggle over prices of food. And

then also to have some sort of ownership

on on product predictability. Because now on our platform, you can be able to

determine that this price is what we are going to sell to you. You don't

need to go remember I told you the story that I usually go to the

market and I have in between 2 cities on me, and I'm short of 5

cities. This time around, it's all on the platform. We can just give ourselves a

call and we'll tell you the price right on time. So if you know you

have the the money, we then supply it to you. There's a kind of

issue we're tackling. Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah. It is a it is a common issue because

I know people that have to go to the market to

purchase goods and, you know, pricing, negotiation,

and your stock issues. It's a headache. So it's a real headache that you're solving.

What you are using is is brilliant. And also find to

add to that Mhmm. Our platform is quite unique because we realize that

many of these small and medium sized restaurants, when they whenever they go to

whenever they need a POS system in Ghana, it costs usually between

3,000 to 50000 Ghana CDs. And you normally have to pay it

affront because the developer is taking his cut, etcetera, etcetera,

maintenance. And for that matter, we are saying that, look, you can't use our

platform at a fraction of a cost for, say, 250 to 300

Ghana CDs. You have access to our platform, our digital POS system. You

would have access to our inventory management system, etcetera, to empower your

business efficiently.

And The food revolutionist, Yeah. Amazing.

And you and your team developed it, right? Yes. So talk us through our team.

Talk us through your team. So my team's a very small team.

Mhmm. Myself, I'm more or less the team lead, marketing,

and being the strategist. Yes. Then I have my tech lead, Jermaine

Amayo Eje, who helps with the tech development. And

of course, I have one lady who is a friend. She is Jenny

Farmanza, helping me with the financials and accounting. Mhmm. And I have a

driver because we have to normally go to get the farms, go to the

farms to directly deliver to our restaurants. Yeah. And then

one other friend called Emmanuel who helps from time to time. So Oh,

yes. So when in in terms of employment, about 3 full time

staff, the 2 are more or less like helping from time to time. Brilliant.

That's all kind of nice. And that's the beauty of like being in the kind

of agri tech or food tech business and stuff. Yes. Everything can be quite

agile and you don't necessarily need loads and loads of people. Whereas with

Gideon, I think of what you're doing is more hands on. So you're gonna have

like a big team. So talk to talk us through that the team that you're

gonna have. Like, is that big team? Is it small team?

I would say compared to what the team we're gonna have, this is actually quite

a small team Yeah. That we have right now. So, there

are 12, permanent staff that we have. And

we have 12. Yeah? Yes, please. And now we have

45 part time part time workers Mhmm. Who are spread across the

universities. So we have all campus ambassadors. Beautiful. Now with the

universities, for their students to, you know, distribute their hand across.

That's amazing. So to kind of do how you started, you want other people to

kind of do the same thing. Wonderful. Beautiful. Right. Exactly. So that's that's

what we're doing. So we have, finance team. We

have the growth officers. We have the marketing team, the production

team. Yeah. But we are currently recruiting, almost about 8

people from the northern territory. We are going to study the

product activation in Tamale. Then we move to,

Damango. And then that's with the honey sa seed that we've introduced to the market.

Right? So you can so now you're making type you're making different types of honey.

Right? That's correct. That's why you're talking about 7 types of honey. Right? That's correct.

Correct. Could you could you talk us through the 7 types of honey you got?

Yes. So, so we have there are 2 main types of honey.

Mhmm. Number 1 is the multifloral, and number 2 is the multifloral.

The monofloral Okay. So the

monofloral. Monofloral is the one that, the bees actually feed

from different sources of trees. The the the

forage on different, tree flowers, different kind of trees. But

in the monoflora is where the bees focus on one particular single tree source

or so to speak, 80% of the for the flower or the

nectar that's used is from a particular single tree. Now a single tree doesn't mean

that one particular, but it means one type of tree. Let's say

mango. So for instance, right now, we have sold we have the multiflora

honey. We also have mango honey, which is under the monoflora

honey. We have cashew honey. We have neem honey. We have baobab

honey, moringa honey, and ekesha honey.

Right? And these honeys, when you taste them without someone

telling you, you will know that, no. This actually be from this

because of the flavor it gives you. Mhmm. You realize that, no, when when you

take it, like, the mango honey, you realize, like, you would actually feel

that mango like flavor, Yeah. Like, when you're taking it. The same with the

cashew, the same with the moringa, and and all of that. Yeah. Yeah. So

that's what we are doing right now in a while. And latest by June, we're

gonna have our share tree, share nuts. No. Let me say

share tree honey. Yeah. Because we, was the name? Starting up

a project of about 1,000 acres of land that we're gonna develop into

only share trees. Mhmm. And that is going to be, like, also partner with,

beekeeping. Wow. That is so along the shared trees, then also

beekeeping. We set up the beehives all across. Wow. Right. So it's amazing. That's

awesome. So you got the network of beehives going across the countries.

Crazy. Crazy. I wanna talk about

some of the challenges that you guys may run run into. So, I mean, what

you've done what you've set up, Nana, is a supply chain,

you know, problem. Yeah. Yeah. You what the business that you serve is is

solving the the supply chain problem. Right? Yeah.

Now what I wanna discuss is that with what you're

doing, do you see other problems

in the industry where you're trying to solve for any

supply chain issues in terms of agriculture, food,

hospitality? And with you as well, Are there any agriculture

Are there any supply chain issues or challenges that you're running into?

That you feel like the industry maybe needs needs to address?

Or that you're trying to address as your own business?

I'll start I'll start with you first. Alright. So

during during my market research Mhmm. That was in 2023,

realizing that, farmers

are So we have a cluster of smallholder farmers. I mean, about

80% of the agricultural produce from Ghana

are from smallholder farmers. Yeah. And smallholder farmers usually

have between 1 to 5 acres of land to

farm. Okay. And what happens is that these farmers,

most often than not, are not able to coordinate Okay. Among

themselves. Yeah. And so what happens is if farmer

A is in Navrundo and has the maize

crop, farmer B and maybe,

another what was the other town in the north? Yeah. Bogatanga.

Bogatanga cannot you know, can also has perhaps

maize. So these these two farmers cannot they they just cannot

collaborate. And for that matter, what happens is that their crops begin to

perish. Got it. So we we are trying to solve that

problem by because you're trying to aggregate these

farmers. Mhmm. So farmer a in Navongo and farmer b in

Bogatanga Yeah. Comes to Medio. We get them the produce.

We get them access to market and then take their produce

to sell to these restaurants who are ready to

buy from them. So that's one issue I realized. Another thing

is the roads. I don't think for that the private sectors would have

to do that. The government really needs to come in because majority

of our roads are so bad. Sure. What happens is that

the the crops you go and buy, because you don't the roads are so

bad, it comes to the warehouse and about 20% of

them has just gone bad because of the the

just the hikes and the jumping here and there. The the driver just doesn't know

how to even maneuver his way around. True, true, true. So I think these are

some bottlenecks that are happening in the agricultural industry.

If farmers are also able to collaborate successfully, then things will be much

better in the agricultural industry. If governments also look at the roads

network, people can be able to transport produce to and through

with much ease. Ease and quicker as well. Yes. Okay. Great.

So, Gideon, you just heard from Nana Coffee in terms of the

challenges that from his perspective that he's facing in terms of supply

chain and challenges in the industry. How about you for the Honey Palace? What what

supply chain challenges are you facing? Honey Palace, I think,

the challenges are plenty. They're very plenty.

I don't know where to begin from, whether from the side of the government or

from the side of the the agricultural space. Let's leave the government because

of the elections. We got trouble. The reason I'm saying that the

government is because they actually have not looked at

the honey speed, the agriculture space. So there's not that sort of

regulation. Oh. That's that's where I'm coming from. Anyway,

example, for instance, with the gas tax GRE, they would have to

just assume a certain in, what's the name, sector

taxes on us, but they don't really have

more like a streamlined taxes for those of us playing in the honey

space or agriculture. So when it comes to the regulatory framework

Yeah. It's kind of quite complex. Okay. Especially when it comes to area of tax

as well. So that's why I was talking about the government. And

so aside the government, in terms of supply chain challenges, they are

real. For instance, dealing with farmers is not is not common. It's it's

not easy. Example, because of the should I say, unquote, I'm

sorry, but to say illiteracy, it could be a problem. And most of our times

we realize because a simple issue we are talking about and the

understanding you need to speak almost like 5, 10 minutes on something

that is so easy, just something so easy. And again, to

compliance, with them complying because, we

have standards. We have procedures in our productions. So,

like, simply comply for instance. It's time for harvest. You're supposed to

let us know. We come to you, and then we go to the harvest. Right?

You know? Some of them, you would either have them not,

like, informing you, and then try to go behind you to

harvest and sell to someone else. Meanwhile, you're investing in money

of procuring hire procuring beehives. And beehives are very expensive as

we speak right now. So Wow. Like What kind of prices are we talking? You

know? So some of them will finish saying that, okay. Is is there money that

you you use on what the Beehive will give to you? You know? Some

too, for instance, we have an agreement of how much you're buying it. And for

the time for the others to come, and they will be talking about some different

kind of stories. So I don't know. They it kind of brings some kind of

challenge to us in that appraisal. Right? But still, I think it's

it's quite a good thing. And now that we're looking at what expansion that we

are we're currently doing right now, is gonna ensure that we are having a

very strong pool of of of giving more farmers to,

was to source from. So that's not gonna be a problem to us again. Again,

in the honey space, the agriculture space, I would say in Ghana,

we are really fragmented. We are not coordinated. Right? There's even a

trial of, formation of Ghana beekeepers association

is actually is as good as that as as Oh, wow. You know?

It's not really something that's really doing, anything. It's not I would say

that other sectors are really doing much well. They're they're really doing much well, and

they're trying. And they are even representing their, what's in India?

Their their their their colleagues, and they are even pushing them for great

opportunities, but not. For instance, we went to Gepa, if I

could speak, Ghana Espo Espo Authority. Sorry. Ghana

Espo Promotion Authorities, Gepa. And they don't really

know how to place us, the police. And they're like, they don't really

have people like so for instance, when we come in the police,

then they would have to see how to,

seek for market for us. As in I it's it's really

surprising, but that's that's the the thing. So we are more like

pioneers in the honey space. That's how I look at us, the Honey Palace. And

so we try to do a lot of thing. We try to get a lot

of things in place. Right? So that's that's, one side of

it. Another side of it has to do with honey. Like, another major

challenge is, so I say customer, like perception.

So when when you speak about Honey, so we are tackling issue of

education. Right? People don't know much about honey. Mhmm. So,

do you know they have this mind and, honestly, I I

sympathize with them. Because if I didn't also know much about honey, and then I

hear that they say people mix stuff with honey and all of that, I would

also be really scared. Right? You know? So we have another

work, which was we're not supposed to, but it's a work of education.

So we are working on partner with some of the North American business stations to

begin to educate the public on on on even how to verify

what a good honey is. Wow. What a good honey is not. Wow. Right? So

those are some of the things that we we are doing. That's incredible. That's so

insightful. Thank you for sharing, Gidea. I think the audience is really gonna, you know,

learn a lot from that. And just a really quick

summary, like, an average day for you, what does that look like? Because, I mean,

there's so much, so many moving parts to your to your business. Right. Right.

So I start my day at 6:30. Normally sleep

somewhere at 4:30, 5 o'clock on the previous day in the morning. Mhmm.

My 6 I start at 6:30 because I need to be in the office

by any way. And most of the times, it's about

meetings with, either our team, our sales

team, or our production team meeting with them.

Because for me, honestly, should I say training is very

important, and I don't assume that they know. And because they're working with us,

I don't assume that, okay. Fine. They they are now used to it. So constant

training Yeah. Is what I give to them. Yeah. Aside them also is our

campus ambassadors training them. And, again, to aside

those ones as well, then also is meetings with partners. Yeah. I'm

also direct directly active in the market, like, as on the field on

daily basis, like, responding to customer issues. And my contacts

are with all our customers. My personal contact is with all

our customers. In fact, the nearest one is at Portview Hotel. They're just here.

They call me in the morning, and they were talking. So I had to attend

to them. Yeah. Right? In fact, before so I was just telling him, like,

the reason why I didn't got him here late because I had to, like, attend

to him and also stop by at the mall to attend to, Vida Cafe.

Beautiful. They were your clients as well. Yeah. Beautiful. And, so, like,

those are some of the things, you know, that I do, right, on the e

biz. And also to, deal with our trainers. I mean, our

beef our beef farmers. Mhmm. Currently, we are training a 1000 beekeepers,

but, I mean, in the north right now. Wow. They are actually a 5,000

people, but then we are starting with a 1,000 in a way. And with a

1,000, we are discussing with GIZ. Right? They are coming in to help us

with beehives. Right? So we are currently discussing a

1,000 beehives with them whilst, we are

doing the training. So the training is ongoing right now. So it's been in the

north, by east region, not to be to be specific.

Yeah. So, like, just actually have my day. I don't know if

Wow. I'm able to put it well, but that's how my day. Day. It's incredible.

Yeah. No. It sounds it doesn't sound like a boring day at all. It's a

bit maybe maybe quite a a packed day, but not a boring day. No. I

boring. Yeah. Thank you for showing that Gideon. And how about you, Gideon,

another coffee quickly? Well, mine is more spontaneous. Yeah.

Because I realized with Gideon his is more structured because it's

a larger, organization. So

with with Medir, I start my day at 7.

I sleep at 12 AM to 1 AM because usually

during the night, after I'm done reading, I have to check on my messages again

before I sleep. Mhmm. So when I sleep at 12, I usually

wake up. 6, 6:30, I meditate.

For the gym, I started working out, I stopped. Oh. I've become

lazy. And that's that regards to

so I mean, anyone who is watching, if you feel like you can motivate me

to work out, I mean, I'll be glad to be your gym buddy.

But, right after that I zoom in through meetings.

So I usually call my team members. We have

meetings, and then we try and discuss what we are trying to achieve in the

day. Okay. Thereafter, I go to the farms. So I have my driver

pick me up. We go to the farms to try and also talk to the

farmers, get the produce, and then we bring it to the warehouse. Okay.

If we have to supply the same dummies, I would have to supply to the

restaurants on the same day. Okay. Nonetheless, most of the times, it is

scheduled. So we go some days, we have to go to the farms, we bring

the produce to the warehouse. Yeah. The next 2 or 3 days, we are

now dispatching to the restaurant. If I'm not

doing that, then I'm actually patient to investors.

I usually try and raise grants. That's nice. But now

from where things are going, we'll need pre seed. So we are trying to

structure the the organization in a way that we are

ready for pre seed investment. That's pretty Currently, we are in talks with

Founder Factory Africa. Mhmm. Shout out to Kudu,

to Dolapo and Eunice. Mhmm. Right? Because they are the ones who are

in talks with me currently to see how best we they can invest in

our company. Mhmm. Brilliant. That's very insightful, Nada. Thanks for

sharing, Nada. Sure. In terms of you quickly really quickly,

Gideon, in terms of, like, your, like, your

day. He talks about doing supplying to, like,

vendors. Right? Do you go guys manage the distribution

to to your vendors as well, or do they kind of manage from you? Right.

Right. So we do the we manage the the the distribution.

Okay. But then we have a partner like Trucks that we use

to, what's the name, distribute, and also those who order

in minimum, sizes, smaller quantities. Okay. As for this month, we

actually have free delivery that that we've launched out for this month. Oh, wow. Okay.

And so we have our bikes people that will do the delivery and the dispatch

to them. Nice. Right. Bikes people. So, like, do you do you part do you

partner up on some of the the food platforms? Like, the like, the good like,

Bolt Food, Clogos and stuff. But we have a we have 2 bikes. Okay.

So we have Oh, wow. Okay. They use that for the delivery. Is

that is that within Accraal, outside Accraal? Not within Accraal. Within Accraal. Yeah. But outside

Accraal, it's 50% discount. 50% discount for

outside of Accra. Okay. Wow. Fantastic. Okay. Cool. Outside

of so because you wanna make it more accessible to those outside of the grid.

Because of And of course, people in the car, they can afford a lot more

than people outside. That's correct. That's a beautiful initiative. So just tell us where you

think agriculture is going. You know, like, is it would you say the

future is bright? Or would you say,

we have a long way to go in terms of Ghana? You or you think

the future is gonna be good for us? Right. Thank you.

So I think that the the future is definitely very bright.

Mhmm. And would agree with the fact that we also have a long way to

go. Mhmm. That's that's that's what I was saying. And, because number

1, there's that sort of, a very good penetration of

technology, Yeah. And almost every area, you realize

that different people are coming up with different kind of technological products, you know,

in different space, area of coconuts, like, I mean, almost

everywhere, like like, the other sort of, technology that's come in. And

and I think the ax though the acceptance is not that very rapid as

we speak, you know, but then I think it's very encouraging. So,

like, definitely, we actually go into something that means somewhere very great. That that's what

I can say. I agree with that. Yeah. Okay. Cool. What about you, Nana Nana

Coffee? What do you think? Well, I wouldn't want to be a prophet of doom.

However, I feel like, just like you know what I'm saying,

there's a lot of, stuff going on.

For me, in terms of the negatives, right, there is a

vast development of infrastructure. So we are

clearing parts of, lands that should be used for

farming. Day in, day out, farmers are losing their

land to real estate. And that means that

if real estate is coming in, how are we going to

eat in the next 50, 100 years to come?

Now you'd also realize the advent of climate change happening.

Ghana is experiencing one of the highest recorded

heat temperatures this year. And and it's

unfortunate. They are saying this is there's worse years coming. I

mean, 2025 is going to have one of the hottest years ever

in a century. So clearly,

that's why I say I don't want to be a prophet of doom, but you

realize that agricultural industry is really declining and if

people don't step up, what happened is that we

would have series of drought and series of famine coming in.

But there's still some good news. With the good news, just like Gideon said,

technology is coming in the rise. People are getting, access to

knowledge. People can farm about maybe,

something that a crop of tomato, like, tomatoes could have been grown

on 1 acre. Someone can do it on just a

small piece of land, which we call the vertical farming.

So, clearly, there is still some way, somehow good

news for people. And this is this is one thing I tell entrepreneurs, that

when you realize that the the challenges are enormous, that's when you should

jump in. So if you see that agriculture is gonna be

a a trend in between 30, a lot of people would would I

mean, Africans would even double their population.

Then you should jump on right now, hop in, and see where you fit in

agricultural supply chain to see how you can best solve their

problems. Okay. And that's a great segue in terms

of tips to people that wanna get to agriculture. Was that how would you say

that's the tip you would recommend that if you can jump in now, jump in

now? Yeah. If if you can jump in, jump in now. Because just like I

explained, there are series of problems lurking in the agricultural

industry. And so it means

it signifies that we need more people now, more

entrepreneurs to come on board to see how best we can solve these

problems. Yeah. Talk of climate change, talk of supply chains, talk

of access to quality honey and quality fresh

produce. Right? So we need more of these young innovators out there to

also come on board because the future is is bright.

Brilliant. Okay. And, Gideon, tip

one one tip to an entrepreneur or someone that's aspiring entrepreneur

once again to agriculture. It's

hard. That's and it's important

that you accept the fact that it's hard. People go into

entrepreneurship, whether, should I say, like,

looking at this all these details. For instance, this morning, one of

my journalist friend reached out to me, and

he was telling about one company that I

always admire. And he was telling me what's actually going in,

to extend that they are having extreme liquidity issues,

debt Mhmm. Challenges and stuff. And so I was

like, wow. Then he said, not all those glitters are

gold, so so to speak. I think a lot of

people, when I'm speaking with my colleague, like business guys, people who are interested in

business, like, they are actually carried away by the, should I

say, the glamorous side of the hotel, looking at

entrepreneurs, like, maybe driving the best cars, leaving the best houses

and stuff. So they feel like, okay. That's just how it's gonna be. Mhmm. But

they don't know that there's a mad sign. So I would advise that anyone going

into entrepreneurship when all considering that, just know that it's hard.

That's the truth. And it's about just I mean, accepting that

it's hard, that you cannot make the best out of it. Because when you go

in with a soft mind, thinking that, oh, no, it's not really supposed to be

that. No. You're disappointed. Right? So it's hard work,

it's so tough, but it's also one of the most rewarding, and I will

never treat my philosophy venture for anything. So, yeah,

that's what I can say. Brilliant. And the coffee, paper coming to shove, Gideon. Thank

you. And paper coming to shove. Thank you. Thank you. Really quickly, 2024,

what's in store? So the Honey Palace, we've rolled

out, hoping to train a 5,000 beekeepers Wow.

Into beekeeping. We've already start started with the first 75,000

people in Nobrongu. That's in the upper east region that we've started.

And, also, the next, cohort are going to start

from in Boahafu region, and that's actually where we do, our

casu casu. That's what we produce from. Yeah. That kind of thing.

And, again, to this year of 2024, we've

actually just opened a small shop in Lagos, Nigeria. That's where the

Honeywell is extension. And we are looking at, like, actually

expanding it more in Lagos space. And, again, in the

across the northern territory, we are looking at launch that 1st room

in Tamale to be Wow. To be specific. That's another

thing. And 2024, we are going fully into exports

ourselves. Wow. Now we were actually doing the exports through a third

party. Mhmm. Right? So far, but through the when the diasporas

came, a lot of them came to our house, and a lot of them took

interest in what we're doing. So, that's that's another thing that

we are going to look at, fully export ourselves, like, you know, so

getting the, certification, the ACHOSAT trade fair, then

gap Yeah. You know, certification that would allow us to go to export

to, the US, the UK, and the Europe. Exciting. That's something.

So that's, what I can say about us. And

into 2025, then they're starting with the the establishment of a honey

plant. Hey. Let's leave it there. So I'll be. 2025.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's it for

us. So wow. I mean, I think the future is really bright for you guys.

Right. Okay. And and where where can everyone find the Honey Palace and grab hold

of the honey? So you mentioned some of the locations Right. Websites, social media.

Good. So the Honey Palace, our website is the honeypaliceafrica.com. You can

find us on LinkedIn, the Honey Palace. You can find us on IG,

Facebook, the Honey Palace, Twitter, the Honey Palace. Yeah. So we're everywhere.

Thank you. Brilliant. Thanks. And then what about you, 2024?

2024 looks promising. Mhmm. For us,

just like I said, we've launched our platform. So in 2024,

we envisage that at least it should be across all 16 regions

in Ghana. In 2024 too, we are looking at working with

promise and Accelerator Pro, and Venture Investors.

Just like I mentioned, Founders Factory Africa is is on top of the list.

We're also looking forward to work with some investors from

Switzerland. They are also very interested in what we are doing.

So this year, we envisage that we should have at least some that

we should have launched our platform into the other 15 regions because currently

it's just Accra we are we are working in. So 15

regions using it. We should also have installed our wind turbine

so that we can be able to increase the shelf life of our produce in

our warehouse to as much as 30 days. And we should

also have also revamped our logistics. Currently, we're just using

2 vans. So we want to maybe partner with

logistic partners. So anyone listening to this podcast, you

can reach out to us. So we see how best we can collaborate, so we

can be able to more or less scale, our

procurement to other regions and restaurants across Ghana.

Excited. Beautiful. Wow, judgment. You can reach

out to us on LinkedIn, Merdeo Foods,

m e r d e o, Foods, f o

d s, and also on,

Facebook and Instagram. Excellent. Well, we'll have all

of this, the, the links, key references, wisdom, keys

in the show notes. You guys can head over to the thesoundofaccra.com/agritech.

That's thesoundofaccra.com/agritech for today's

show notes. That's ag, r I t

e c h. Okay? We'll leave links to their social medias

and their websites in the description below. If you're watching on YouTube or if you're

listening on the podcast platforms, Gentlemen, this has been a very insightful

conversation. Thank you for sharing insights in terms of what's happening in the supply chain,

what's happening in agriculture, what's happening in the food, hospitality industry from

your perspective? Where where you think the future is going and some very compelling

stories in terms of how you started and and how it's going and where where

is where where you guys are heading to. I'm really excited to see what's

gonna happen in the in the coming years. But, yeah, there you have it guys.

I hope you really enjoyed that. I hope you learnt something from that. This is

a very interesting conversation, more of a panel, type interview

today. If you guys wanna see more conversation like this, let us know.

Drop us an email. Let us know on our social media or let us know

in the comments below. If you guys want me if you wanna see me

do some more content on these 2 guys in the future, in whatever

format that may be, let us know. We wanna hear from you. There you have

it, guys. Thank you so much. Take care.