2026
Market study · English
Exploring Market Segments for Fonio Cookies in Burkina Faso
Who would buy a fonio cookie? Research and a sprint led to one launch and one reformulation.
- Publisher
- FonioForce
- Summary
- Read the summary
Sense · Since 2012
Scaling agri-food processing in Africa
Sense helps African food processors grow. When they do, farmers sell more of their crop, more people have fair work and more people can buy safe, nutritious food.
14years in African agri-food
30+countries
138companies being coached now
41enrolled in food safety training
Since 2012 we have worked in more than 30 countries, for funders including CBI, GIZ, COLEAD and the Embassy of Ireland.
What we do
We help African food processors grow. We work with processors, and with the buyers, coaches and institutions around them, so they can make safe, nutritious food, employ people well and reach markets that pay more.
Value chain development
Finds where a product loses value, then leads the fix.
Finds where a product loses value, then leads the fix.
Market studies
Finds who buys, at what price and to what standard.
Finds who buys, at what price and to what standard.
Commercial innovation
Finds new opportunities, models them and helps companies carry them out.
Finds new opportunities, models them and helps companies carry them out.
Export coaching
Readies processors for export buyers.
Readies processors for export buyers.
Business development services
Coaches inside the company, on its figures and factory floor.
Coaches inside the company, on its figures and factory floor.
Business modelling
Shows a lender or investor that the business can repay.
Shows a lender or investor that the business can repay.
Adult learning
Builds courses, tools and trainers.
Builds courses, tools and trainers.
Responsible business
Helps a company run responsibly: fair work, safe workplaces and less waste.
Helps a company run responsibly: fair work, safe workplaces and less waste.
Food safety
Safe, nutritious food and the certificates that prove it.
Safe, nutritious food and the certificates that prove it.Nine skills, from market studies to food safetySee what we do
Our work
CBI dried mango, phase 1: we led coaching in Burkina Faso and supported Côte d'Ivoire. 9 companies became export competent. In Burkina Faso, where we led: EUR 1.1m in additional EU and EFTA export revenue between 2021 and 2025, certified under CBI's methodology.
Read the case study
GIZ MOVE: we coached 42 rice mills and trained 28 local coaches in four countries.
Read the case study
Malawi: IMAGRI, funded by the Embassy of Ireland.
Read the case studyFind the work that matches yours
Curious to know about our work? These are some of our projects. Pick a type of work, a crop, a group of people or a country to see the ones closest to your interests.
Pick one to see the projects behind it. Every option is backed by real work.
Explore our projectsWho we’ve worked with
Our donor partners.
Also on our projectsEuropean Union · Sustainable Food Systems Ireland (SFSI) · RVO · UNIDO · AGRA · CDF Canada
More of our work
Export readiness for the dried pineapple sector
12processing companies assessed in depth
Diagnostics, coaching and programme design for CBI's support to dried pineapple exporters in Benin.
Burkina DryMore: processing beyond the mango season
2containers of fonio shipped to the Netherlands
Helping Burkina Faso's dried mango processors add fonio, ginger and hibiscus so their factories work all year.
HortiPlus: horticulture businesses and compost
Coaching for horticulture businesses and a quality plan for compost producers in Burkina Faso.
Where we work
Our offices, and every country with a project on this site.
South AfricaOffice · Durban
MalawiOffice · Lilongwe
IrelandOffice · Cork
Burkina FasoOffice · Bobo-Dioulasso
Côte d'IvoireOffice · Abidjan
BeninOffice · Cotonou
MozambiqueOffice · Maputo
Ghana
Nigeria
Kenya
Eritrea
Angola
Recent publications
2025
Resource · English
How to... promote business models for rural youth employment in the agri-food sector
A GIZ how-to paper on finding and promoting business models for young people in rural agri-food value chains. It sets out the five-step approach GIZ developed with Sense (named as Economic Sense) and case studies from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique.
- Authors
- Daria Hasse (GIZ), Elena Gaffurini (Como Consult), Tessa Robinson (GIZ)
- Publisher
- GIZ
- Project
- Rural Youth Employment Accelerator
- Download (3.8 MB)
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