Our Story

Yolélé brought fonio to the US in 2017. Launched as a purpose-driven African food brand, the company became a national leader in that capacity. The company was single-handedly responsible for introducing fonio to non-immigrant tables in the US. But it soon became clear that being a B2B supplier was the core of our business. 

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Soon after we placed retail bags of fonio into a single store, the story of our hugely impactful ancient grain was widely reported in influential media. Emails started coming in from global food companies asking if we could supply them with fonio to use in their products. We had to say “no”, because the technology used to transform fonio from a crop into an ingredient could not meet the requirements of the global food industry.

We knew we would have to stretch beyond the contours of a niche African food brand to achieve our business and impact objectives. We brought on grain milling expertise, knowing that we needed to process at scale. But we also knew that a technical solution would not do any good unless we could source fonio reliably, and professionally operate an industrial facility in West Africa.

We established Yolele West Africa with local partners who are widely respected leaders in their fields. Tapping into deep experience in agriprocessing in the region, we are able to assure consistent high quality supply, large scale, and demonstrable positive impact.