A farmer waits weeks
Crop is collected on a promise. Payment arrives after the buyer has sold on — sometimes six weeks later, sometimes not at all. Meanwhile school fees, inputs and the next season will not wait.
Cash crop trade across the EAC
Farmers paid in 48 hours. Buyers supplied with traceable crop.
MazaoTrade connects smallholder farmers directly to corporate buyers. The buyer funds an escrow account before a single sack moves, so the money to pay farmers is already there when the crop is graded.
- 48 hours
- From grading to payment
- 30–50%
- Paid up front on delivery
- 3 signatures
- Required before money moves
The wait is the problem
A buyer cannot see the chain
Volumes arrive through layers of middlemen with no grading record, no origin and no proof of what was paid to whom. That fails an export audit and it fails the farmer.
How a trade works
Follow the money through a single contract. Every step below is a real state in the system.
Step 1
Buyer funds escrow
A corporate buyer signs a contract for a volume, crop and grade, then deposits half the goods value into a segregated trust account. Sourcing does not begin until the money has cleared.
Cash rises, and so does the obligation to return it. The deposit is never the platform’s money.
Live market price board
Every price names its source and the time it was set. A price with no source never appears here.
And a floor beneath them
Market prices above are indicative — they say what the market did, not what you will be paid. Separately, MazaoTrade publishes a minimum price for every crop and grade. A contract that would pay a farmer below it is refused by the system, not argued about with a person.
No smartphone? Send an SMS
Most farmers we work with use a feature phone. The whole price board is available over SMS, in Swahili or English.
PRICE CASHEW— the current price and its sourceBALANCE— what you are owed and when it landsSTATUS— the state of your last delivery
15400MazaoTrade
MazaoTrade: PRICE <CROP> for prices. BALANCE for payments. STATUS for a receipt. STOP to opt out.
This is a demonstration of the reply format. Real replies are sent from a registered short code.
Built for three people at once
Farmers
- Paid within 48 hours of grading, not after the buyer sells on
- Check prices and what you are owed by SMS — no smartphone needed
- A receipt for every delivery, with the grade and the weight recorded
- Prices published with their source, so you can see where the number came from
Field agents
- The app works with no network — records sync when signal returns
- Grade criteria on screen in Swahili, so grading is against a standard
- Photograph the crop and the scale as evidence
- Nothing is lost if the phone goes offline for a whole shift
Corporate buyers
- Traceable supply: origin, grade, weight and chain of custody per consignment
- Pay half up front, the balance on agreed credit terms
- Sign proof of delivery online; settlement posts the same moment
- Documentation that stands up to an export audit
Where the money sits, and who can move it
Buyer deposits are segregated
Deposits are held in a trust account, reconciled daily, and never used for the platform’s own costs.
Three people, or no payment
A payment is assembled by one person, checked by a second and released by a third. The system refuses if the same person appears twice.
Double-entry accounting throughout
Every movement posts a balanced journal entry that is never edited or deleted. Corrections are made by reversing entries an auditor can follow.
A floor the system enforces
Every crop and grade carries a published minimum price, dated and attributed to whoever approved it. The people who negotiate a contract can read the floor but cannot move it.
The platform’s own borrowing is capped too
When MazaoTrade fronts a farmer balance, the amount cannot exceed the shortfall it exists to cover, it needs a second signature, and it is recorded with the interest it costs.
Verified counterparties
Buyers are verified against BRELA registration and TIN before they can trade. Farmers give explicit, recorded consent for their data.
Trading starts with a conversation
Whether you are a cooperative with volume to sell or a processor looking for traceable supply, tell us what you trade and we will show you how a contract would work.
Get in touch