The book ‘It takes two to trade – Understanding and improving farmer-firm relations in Africa’ was released on 24 September 2015 during the 10-year anniversary party of AgriProFocus. On March 24, 2016 an Expert Meeting is organized around this subject.

A sustainable relationship between farmers and their customers is paramount for good business. To achieve this both parties need to be aware of each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and perceptions. In a structured way, the 2-2-Trade tool brings these strengths, weaknesses and perceptions to the surface.

With a facilitated, structured discussion 2-2-Trade creates mutual understanding between farmers and their customers creating space for development and new initiatives and opportunities that bring benefit to both.

During the Expert Meeting, the following will be explained:

• How trade relations can be made more sustainable and profitable by looking at the critical components of the relation.
• How the 2- 2 Trade tool can be used in specific business cases.

Agenda

After a network lunch (13.00-14.00 hrs) with a.o. our Business Linkage advisors from several Country Networks, the following will be discussed:

1. Farmer – firm relations: A simple model with 7 critical components
2. Two-2-Trade tool: Looking behind stereotypes and finding common ground for improving the business case.
3. Three cases where 2-2-Trade has been applied:
   1. Brewing beer in Burundi.
   2. Selling cashew in Benin; to a trader or to a firm?
   3. Dairy in Kenia and Rwanda; dealing with risks and competition.
4. Forum discussion: we will discuss how improving farmer – firm relations can strengthen our business cases. Heineken and FrieslandCampina will be part of the forum.

Participants

• Come from companies that trade with farmers and their organisations in emerging markets;
• Are professionals from governmental organisations and NGOs supporting and facilitating trade;
• Are experts from universities and other knowledge institutes.

All participants have in common the interest to improve business cases: farmer – firm relationships in which they are active as a company or that their organisation supports.