WISHH strategic partner, SESACO, brings the nutritional power of U.S. soy protein to East African breads, beverages, school meals and even a new frozen soy dessert. Photo credit: SESACO

April is Soyfoods month and a perfect time for WISHH to salute an innovative strategic partner-- SESACO foods and beverages company in Uganda. Watch the video and read the full success story to see how SESACO brings the nutritional power of U.S. soy protein to breads, beverages, school meals and more.

This month, the continuously innovating entrepreneur, Charles Nsubuga, and company of approximately 100 employees introduced frozen soy dessert, a first for Uganda and quite possibly the entire East African region.  Partnerships, trade and jobs for women are three key ingredients in SESACO’s recipe for economic growth and improved nutrition for the region. SESACO manufactures unique products, such as the coffee-inspired Soyacup beverage, soy millet porridges, and soy yoghurt, as well as operates a retail store and conducts street kitchen promotions. The company also supplies Ugandan bakers with U.S. soy flour and trains them on how it can boost their profits--and at the same time--increase the nutrition and shelf life of their breads.

WISHH’s ongoing cooperation with SESACO has leveraged USDA Foreign Agricultural Service programs, such as the Foreign Market Development Program, along with funding from Qualified State Soybean Boards. Thanks to USDA’s Cochran Fellowship Program, WISHH was able to bring Nsubuga to the United States in 2018 to participate in school meals training, including WISHH’s Affordable Protein Supply: Solving the Institutional Meals Puzzle workshop at Purdue University. WISHH also aided Charles in connecting with U.S. suppliers, resulting in SESACO’s 2018 agreement to buy soy flour from ZFS Creston and textured soy protein from Kansas Protein Foods.  “We can’t produce these products at home so we better import them from the USA so we can address two main challenges: one nutrition and the other economic,” Nsubuga says.