Established in January 2024 in Addis Ababa, ChipChip is Ethiopia’s first “social buying platform”, utilizing an e-commerce trading system where farmers can fulfill orders collected from consumers through the platform. Unlike other vegetable sales digital platforms in the country, which only focus on retail without investing in direct sourcing from farmers or engaging with them, ChipChip stands out.

With 100 employees (40 women), ChipChip sources from 150 smallholder farmers directly through their coordinator. However, the influence and involvement of brokers remain significant and can be disruptive. ChipChip would like to build a strong direct supply arrangement with farmers, thus cutting down the long chain currently being used through agents who work with brokers. This will not only help them deliver on their value proposition for farmers but also help build a sustainable supply chain. The company aims to optimize the supply chain of consumables, including vegetables, to offer better prices and quality for both producers and consumers.

Recently, ChipChip received the Best Start-up Award from the Kofi Annan/WFP Award for Innovations. To date, ChipChip has been able to offer attractive deals for consumers through its unique group buying model, making substantial progress on the demand side. This is making ChipChip visible and appealing to consumers by reducing the transaction costs involved in delivering to a group compared to individuals, thereby maximizing efficiency. However, on the supply side, ChipChip is facing challenges in attracting and retaining smallholder farmers and enhancing their experience on the platform.

Contact: Mr Hannes Garben, CEO ChipChip (photo) Email 

E-commerce to Catalyse an Alternative Reliable Marketplace for Smallholder Farmers

This project demonstrates a business model that delivers prime value to buyers through the group buying model and aims to be a better-paying marketing platform for producers.

The objective of the CASA and ChipChip partnership (December 2024 – December 2025) is to address the dysfunctionality of the vegetable supply chain by directly working with smallholder farmers and cooperatives. By engaging farmers through the ChipChip Connect sourcing platform (a farmer engagement app), the goal is to shorten the supply chain, reduce costs through digital data exchange, and make informed business decisions. ChipChip Social will provide demand-based technical assistance to improve farmers’ adaptive capacity and climate change resilience, ensuring long-term supplier engagement.

Through this partnership, ChipChip aims to expand its outreach from 150 to 3,000 farmers (900 women and 1,200 youth), to include more women in the supply chain, and so that farmers sell their produce on the e-commerce platform at better prices, thus increasing their incomes. The partnership will facilitate knowledge and information access for smallholder vegetable farmers, including organic fertilizer options and early-maturing, stress-resistant varieties. ChipChip will offer incentives to attract smallholder farmers to sell via the platform, such as access to inputs, loans, weather alerts, production and quality advisory services, gamified agronomic advice, price leveling, long-term market assurance, pre-selling, upfront payments, and access to markets for lower-quality produce. The new business arrangement is anticipated to help improve farmers’ incomes by 20% by the end of 2027.

Of the total project cost of £123,175, CASA contributed £67,675 (55%) through technical assistance and a grant.

The ChipChip Connect platform will provide advisory and information services to enhance farmers’ resilience and introduce gamification to reduce vegetable post-harvest loss by 20%. Farmers will benefit from better farm gate prices, increased productivity, and free advisory support on good agricultural practices, including climate-smart techniques. Transport optimization in the group buying model will reduce fuel consumption, benefiting the environment and climate change. Additionally, ChipChip will test environmentally friendly delivery solutions, moving away from plastic bags.

Updated: March 2025