ETG was borne through the vision of Mahesh Patel, a leading businessman in Sub-Saharan Africa. Born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1955, Mr. Patel’s keen entrepreneurial spirit and strong core values have helped shape the African agricultural industry.

Mr. Patel originally joined Export Finance Company Limited, which distributed and marketed consumer packaged goods. In 1981, with the company almost in receivership, Mr. Patel bought 100 percent of its shares, renamed it Export Trading Group (ETG), and changed its focus to sourcing and marketing agriculture commodities. Mr. Patel’s strength in logistics and ability to source commodities locally allowed the company to begin providing less expensive grains to aid organizations including UNICEF and the World Food Program, along with enabling timely delivery to hunger-stricken areas.

ETG is a global agricultural supply chain organization that originated in Kenya and now operates in 40 countries globally and 25 countries across Africa. Based on lessons learned through its original outreach programs in Uganda and Kenya, ETG developed the business model that started EFF, a registered non-profit organization established in 2013 to formalize and build on ETG’s smallholder development work.

EFF is independent with its own Mission, Board of Directors, and Management Committee. ETG is not an exclusive partner; EFF collaborates with various organizations through private-public partnerships (PPP).