{"id":29142,"date":"2026-09-10T14:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/?p=29142"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:14:12","slug":"ivette-biokou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/alumni\/west-african-alumni\/ivette-biokou","title":{"rendered":"Ivette Biokou est\u00e1 a transformar o excedente de fruta do Benim numa oportunidade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivette Biokou is turning surplus fruit into sustainable business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every harvest brings a window of opportunity.<\/p>\n

For farmers growing mangoes, bananas and pineapples in Benin, that window can also be a race against time. Fresh fruit is highly perishable, and when it cannot be sold, stored or processed quickly enough, its value can disappear.<\/p>\n

Para Ivette Biokou<\/strong><\/a>, that loss presented a business opportunity.<\/p>\n

Instead of allowing surplus fruit to become waste, she began transforming it into products with a longer shelf life and new commercial possibilities.<\/p>\n

Atrav\u00e9s de Ewatomi Market<\/strong>, founded in Parakou, Ivette is processing locally grown fruits into dried snacks and fruit-based products while building a business around sustainability, employment and local agricultural value.<\/p>\n

Her approach is simple but consequential: if fresh produce cannot always reach the market in time, the market can find another way to preserve its value.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ivette Biokou saw opportunity in what others might discard<\/h2>\n

Benin has a strong agricultural base and produces a variety of tropical fruits.<\/p>\n

But producing food is only one part of building a resilient food system.<\/p>\n

Farmers also need ways to preserve, process, distribute and sell their harvests. Without those systems, seasonal abundance can become a liability. When supply temporarily exceeds demand or processing capacity, fresh produce can spoil before it generates income.<\/p>\n

It was this challenge that caught Ivette Biokou’s attention in Parakou<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

She saw that fruit that might otherwise be lost could be transformed into products that remain useful and marketable for longer.<\/p>\n

That insight became the foundation of Ewatomi Market<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The business was designed not simply as a food-processing venture, but as a way to create more value from agricultural produce while responding to the environmental and economic costs associated with food waste.<\/p>\n

What does Ewatomi Market do?<\/h2>\n

Ewatomi Market is a Beninese food-processing business that transforms locally grown fruits into value-added products.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Its product range includes dried fruit snacks as well as pineapple and mango fruit liqueurs<\/strong>, giving the company multiple ways to turn locally available produce into products for different consumer markets.<\/p>\n

The business supplies products to restaurants, hotels and student communities in Parakou<\/strong>, connecting locally processed food with everyday consumers.<\/p>\n

The model has an important advantage.<\/p>\n

Instead of relying entirely on the short commercial life of fresh fruit, processing creates products that can remain available for longer and reach customers through different channels.<\/p>\n

For farmers and agricultural communities, this creates another potential route to market.<\/p>\n

For consumers, it creates access to locally processed fruit products.<\/p>\n

And for the business itself, it creates an opportunity to build a brand around an abundant local resource.<\/p>\n

From a one-person operation to a growing food business<\/h2>\n

The scale of Ewatomi Market today is difficult to understand without looking at where it started.<\/p>\n

Before participating in the Programa de Empreendedorismo da Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Tony Elumelu<\/strong><\/a>, Ivette operated the business alone with basic equipment.<\/p>\n

Monthly revenue stood at approximately US$300<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Limited storage and rudimentary processing methods constrained both production capacity and product consistency, making it difficult to respond to increasing demand.<\/p>\n

The challenge was therefore not simply finding more customers.<\/p>\n

Ivette needed the capacity to serve them.<\/p>\n

That meant investing in better equipment, improving production processes and developing the business systems needed to move from small-scale production towards a more structured enterprise.<\/p>\n

The transformation has been significant.<\/p>\n

Ewatomi Market’s monthly revenue increased from US$300 to US$4,821<\/strong>, while the business expanded from a one-person operation to a team of five employees<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The growth represents more than a fifteen-fold increase in monthly revenue.<\/p>\n

It also illustrates how improving production capacity can change the possibilities available to a small agricultural business.<\/p>\n

The Tony Elumelu Foundation helped Ivette Biokou build capacity<\/h2>\n

Em 2024<\/strong>, Ivette Biokou joined the Programa de Empreendedorismo da Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Tony Elumelu<\/strong>, receiving US$5 000 em capital inicial<\/strong>, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.<\/p>\n

For Ewatomi Market, the capital addressed one of its most immediate constraints: equipment.<\/p>\n

Ivette invested in industrial-grade drying and storage equipment<\/strong>, strengthening the company’s production capacity and helping improve consistency across its products.<\/p>\n

The business training provided another layer of support.<\/p>\n

Ivette developed her knowledge of financial management, business planning and operational growth, while mentorship provided guidance around food safety and market positioning.<\/p>\n

The combination was important.<\/p>\n

Equipment could increase what the business was capable of producing. Business knowledge could help determine how that increased capacity should be managed.<\/p>\n

Together, they helped create the conditions for Ewatomi Market’s next stage of growth.<\/p>\n

Why processing matters as much as production<\/h2>\n

Agricultural development is often measured by how much a farmer can produce.<\/p>\n

But there is another question worth asking:<\/p>\n

How much of that production becomes economic value?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A kilogram of fresh mango that spoils before reaching a customer creates little or no income.<\/p>\n

The same fruit, when processed into a product with a longer shelf life, can potentially reach a different market, at a different time and in a different form.<\/p>\n

This is the economic logic behind Ewatomi Market.<\/p>\n

By processing fruits locally, Ivette Biokou is adding another layer of value between farm and consumer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That creates opportunities for activity beyond agriculture itself, including processing, packaging, sales, distribution and employment.<\/p>\n

It also demonstrates why agro-processing can be an important part of strengthening local food systems.<\/p>\n

The goal is not simply to produce more.<\/p>\n

It is to lose less and create more value from what is already produced.<\/p>\n

Ivette Biokou is building a business with women at its centre<\/h2>\n

For Ivette, the impact of entrepreneurship does not stop with her own company.<\/p>\n

The expansion of Ewatomi Market has created employment opportunities for women and young people<\/strong>, but she also wants to extend the business’s knowledge beyond its immediate workforce.<\/p>\n

Her plans include developing training programmes that teach young women practical food-processing skills alongside the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

That combination matters.<\/p>\n

Technical skills can create the ability to produce a product. Business skills can provide the knowledge required to price, market and manage it.<\/p>\n

Together, they can create a stronger foundation for people seeking to build their own livelihoods.<\/p>\n

For Ivette Biokou, sharing those skills is part of the wider opportunity embedded in Ewatomi Market: turning local resources into businesses while helping more people develop the capacity to create businesses of their own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From food waste to economic value<\/h2>\n

There is a tendency to discuss food waste primarily as an environmental problem.<\/p>\n

It is one, but it is also an economic problem.<\/p>\n

When food is lost, farmers lose potential income, businesses lose potential revenue and the resources used to produce that food generate less value.<\/p>\n

Food processing offers one way of changing that equation.<\/p>\n

By converting perishable agricultural products into products with different shelf-life and market characteristics, entrepreneurs can create additional opportunities within the food value chain.<\/p>\n

That is the space Ewatomi Market occupies.<\/p>\n

The company is still growing, but its trajectory illustrates what can happen when an entrepreneur treats a seemingly familiar agricultural challenge as a product and business opportunity.<\/p>\n

Perspetivas para o futuro<\/h2>\n

Ivette Biokou wants Ewatomi Market to become one of Benin’s leading sustainable food brands.<\/p>\n

The immediate ambition is to expand distribution across Benin<\/a> before exploring opportunities in neighbouring West African markets.<\/p>\n

The company also plans to invest in eco-friendly packaging, digital marketing and distribution partnerships<\/strong>, with the aim of reaching more consumers and strengthening the brand’s market presence.<\/p>\n

That expansion will require more than production.<\/p>\n

It will require reliable supply chains, consistent quality, strong branding, efficient distribution and the ability to compete across increasingly sophisticated consumer markets.<\/p>\n

But Ewatomi Market has already demonstrated the value of building capacity around a clear problem.<\/p>\n

Ivette Biokou is not simply preserving fruit. She is preserving the economic value inside it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By turning Benin’s seasonal abundance into products that can travel further, last longer and reach new customers, she is building a business that connects sustainability with commercial opportunity.<\/p>\n

And her journey points to a wider possibility for African agriculture: the next opportunity may not always be found in growing more\u2014it may be found in making more of what is already grown.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivette Biokou est\u00e1 a transformar o excedente de fruta num neg\u00f3cio sustent\u00e1vel. Cada colheita traz uma oportunidade. Para os agricultores que cultivam mangas, bananas e ananases no Benim, essa oportunidade pode tamb\u00e9m ser uma corrida contra o tempo. A fruta fresca \u00e9 altamente perec\u00edvel e, quando n\u00e3o consegue ser vendida, armazenada ou transformada com a rapidez necess\u00e1ria, o seu valor pode desaparecer. Para\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":29144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[366,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-west-african-alumni","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29145,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29142\/revisions\/29145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}