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How sweet potatoes saved this baker’s life in Cameroon
DW (English)
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3 hours ago
What do you do when your main ingredient disappears? Adeline Pelage faced a crisis; her biscuit business in Douala was about to collapse. But instead of giving up, she turned to a humble crop: Sweet Potatoes.
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00:00
What do you do when your main ingredient disappears?
00:06
Adeline Pillage faced a crisis.
00:09
Her biscuit business in Douala was about to collapse.
00:13
But instead of giving up, she turned to a humble crop, sweet potatoes.
00:19
There is no glitter inside, so that makes the best for the stomach
00:24
and for people who might have allergies to a brick there.
00:31
Adeline's rooftop bakery ran into trouble when the war in Ukraine
00:36
disrupted global grain supplies and sent prices skyrocketing.
00:42
But she had an idea.
00:44
Why not use sweet potato flour, which is grown here in Cameroon?
00:49
At the beginning of this adventure, it was really complicated to source this flour.
00:56
It took us a long time to identify key suppliers and people who can rely on
01:06
to supply us good quality of sweet potato flour.
01:10
In 2022, Cameroon produced 580,000 tons of sweet potatoes.
01:19
So, by switching to local sweet potato flour,
01:22
Adeline not only made herself less dependent on volatile global wheat markets,
01:28
but also chose a product that is more affordable than the imported wheat,
01:33
gluten-free and richer in key vitamins.
01:37
Sweet potato flour is naturally sweet compared to wheat flour.
01:46
So, we don't have to add too much sugar in our product.
01:51
And I think it's the best product for the top of Cameroon,
01:57
who don't like too much sweetness.
02:00
Today, her baskets are stocked in hundreds of stores.
02:04
And in 2013, she won the Pierre Castell Award for Innovation.
02:09
But to reach that, Adeline had to build a supply chain from scratch,
02:14
working with farmers in Cameroon's eastern regions,
02:18
over 500 kilometers from Douala.
02:21
When we were starting the business, we met a lot of people.
02:27
We are always speaking loudly what we want to do.
02:31
And that helped us a lot.
02:33
Discussing in all the WhatsApp groups that are bringing together the local producers.
02:40
After that, we visit a lot of them when they are secure with them.
02:52
A strong supply agreement.
02:56
Adeline's journey began far from home.
02:59
While starting business in Paris, she baked to make ends meet.
03:04
In 2019, she returned to Cameroon and launched Biskiteri Bobo.
03:10
I returned in Cameroon in 2019.
03:14
And I just launched my business.
03:18
I start by talking to my family and also people at work.
03:25
I make them taste what I was doing.
03:28
Cookies, the cakes, the brother cake.
03:33
From testing recipes with family to building a brand,
03:37
Adeline's journey was tough.
03:41
The beginning was really hard.
03:43
Really, really, really hard.
03:45
We were not selling at all.
03:48
And we had to invest a lot in marketing.
03:53
And the best marketing is to make people taste their product.
03:58
So, we continue up to now to invest a lot in testing our product to convince the client.
04:10
But today, it's been more than five years.
04:15
People are adopting the Bobo attitude.
04:20
People are adopting our product.
04:23
And we are very proud of that.
04:25
Even when wheat becomes more available, she is sticking with sweet flour.
04:30
For her, this switch wasn't just about survival.
04:33
It was a commitment to better nutrition, local sourcing, and long-term sustainability.
04:40
From farm to factory, every biscuit tells that story.
04:45
It's true that our volume has sharply grown.
04:49
We are doing our best with what we have.
04:54
Quality is really our main concern.
04:58
Quality and taste.
05:00
We took the challenge to do higher quality products in order to compete with biscuits that are imported from abroad.
05:12
And the movement is growing.
05:15
From rooftop ovens to national shelves, Adeline Pillage is rewriting the recipe for African innovation, one bite at a time.
05:25
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05:26
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05:44
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05:50
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