Youssef Mamou : “YoLa Fresh digitizes the entire fruit and vegetable distribution process”

By Mérième Alaoui

Moroccan startup YoLa Fresh won the $10,000 Supernova Challenge prize in the category of agricultural sustainability and technology at GITEX Africa, held in Marrakech from 31 May to 2 June. The company is developing a solution to digitize the fruit and vegetable distribution process between the farmer and the traditional retailer.

It combines digital technology with the traditional consumption habits of Moroccans. Most families buy fruit and vegetables on the street corner almost every day. « 85% is sold through traditional channels. That means corner shops, stalls, small local markets… » says Youssef Mamou, Co-CEO. « We came up with the idea of digitizing the supply chain from the small farmer to the retailer. As far as the retailers are concerned, the idea is to save them precious time. « Every day they have to sell at the wholesale market́, spend between three and four hours going around to buy at the right price and the right quality, and pay the logistics costs because they don’t necessarily have a lorry, and be able to take it back to their shops. »

We want to saturate the city with the oil-spot strategy, starting in Casablanca by sector, then in Morocco and all the way to Africa!

YoLa Fresh offers to deliver the right product in the right quality every morning between 7am and 9am. With daily delivery, the time saved is significant. « The retailer is very happy, that’s why we are growing by +25% every day and we are very happy ».

Based in Casablanca, Morocco’s economic capital, the aim is to move forward by capillary action. « We want to saturate the city with the oil-spot strategy, starting in Casablanca by sector, then in Morocco and all the way to Africa, » says Youssef Mamou.

The other aspect concerns small producers, of which there are many in Morocco, who cultivate no more than 3 hectares. « They know how to grow, but they don’t necessarily know how to sell. They don’t have the volume to go to the wholesale market themselves. As a result, they have to go through a network of intermediaries every day, which doesn’t necessarily guarantee them the best price ». The startup promises to sell at the best price and without delay. But above all, it promises greater visibility.

« These small growers don’t know what the market needs that day, so they don’t know how many tons of potatoes they need to pick up today, for example. The risk of this lack of visibility is waste. If we can manage the flow of materials, we can optimize it. The other argument is to eliminate as much waste as possible: between 24 and 40% less, depending on the product, again according to YoLa Fresh projections.

Data used by AI to create predictive algorithms for supply and demand

« We use the data we collect to overlay intelligence via machine learning and AI to create predictive algorithms for supply and demand, price dynamics and other variances in a supply chain of highly perishable products. »

But isn’t digitizing a traditional sector that has always operated on a day-to-day basis, using traditional communication channels, a bit of a shift in thinking? « That doesn’t mean we’re going to go straight to 5G terminals with the latest application. Digitization is already moving away from informality for better organization. And then we have to stop imagining these sellers and other retailers as old farmers…. Most of them are already connected and on average in their thirties. »

Youssef Mamou, founder and co-CEO of YoLa Fresh, is also known for mentoring other startups. He runs the 212 Founders incubator program at CDG Invest until March 2023. A graduate of École des Ponts Business School (Paris), he previously worked for Careem (since acquired by Uber) and Samsung North Africa. Born in April 2023, YoLa Fresh is only three months old and is already making a name for itself.