AfriLeap
Afrileap will grow hop cones of various varieties, process them into dried pellets or wet cones for ease of storage and transportation, then package the pellets according to industry standards. These hop cones are used in beer production for flavour and preservation of the brewed product.
They will supply local and regional craft breweries through contract based sales as well as home brewers through both online supply and homebrew stores. Product that is not sold through these methods will be sold to hop brokers at wholesale price.
- Empowering smallholder farmers (though an ‘empower to employ’ programme) with necessary resources and mentoring to utilise untapped urban spaces for hops farming, and to expand their operations in Africa
- Saving land and water as Hydroponics need less land to grow plants, compared to traditional farming methods
- Reduced use of pesticides and herbicides due to the hydroponic growth medium
- Afri-leap uses a profit-sharing model, where it splits the post-harvest revenues among farm investors, employees and itself
- Enabling investors to directly invest in a variety of hop harvests
- Urban food production cuts down on shipping costs
Partners
WIBC is an incubator company for the Urban Agriculture Initiative, in partnership of the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership. They provided business and technical mentoring for its greenhouse demonstration and proof of concept pilot.
Future Farms South Africa focuses on the design, provision and management of both indoor and outdoor hydroponic systems. They are helping Afrileap with the technical part of its hydroponic systems.
