Who we are
A Kenyan firm that grew from trade into advice.
HAGRO Trading Limited was founded in 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya. The name stands for Harnessing Africa's Growth and Resources Optimization, and the business has followed that sequence: growth first, in commodity trade, then the advisory practice that the trade made credible.
Our purpose
To make East African agriculture investable, by proving what it actually costs and what it actually returns.
Most of the capital aimed at this sector is allocated on assumptions nobody has tested in a field. We exist to replace those assumptions with numbers that survive being checked, and then to deliver against them.
Our vision
To be the firm that serious money in East African agriculture calls first, and the one still in the county when the programme closes.
Our mission
To give clients advice they can act on this quarter.
Grounded in primary data we collected ourselves, costed against a chain we operate in, and delivered by people who will still be reachable in three years.
Our story
From the trading streets in Nairobi and farms in western Kenya to programme delivery across the region.
HAGRO began by solving a plain problem: smallholder farmers in western Kenya were producing well and selling badly. We built the aggregation, the quality management and the buyer relationships that closed that gap, one commodity at a time.
What we learned doing it turned out to be scarce. Programmes and investors kept arriving with plans built on assumptions we could see were wrong, because we were buying in the same markets they were modelling. So we started being asked for advice, then for studies, then for delivery.
Today the consultancy practice leads, the trading and construction divisions continue to operate commercially, and our media arm documents the farmers behind all of it. We think that combination is unusual in this market, and we think it is why our work holds up.
Milestones
Registered in Nairobi as a private limited company.
Expanded into a fully fledged trading entity.
Ventured into construction and works.
Fully restructured into clear business units.
Information services and consultancy added to the group.
Three business lines, one field network, and a compliance function that reports to the board.
The group
One group, three faces
HAGRO Trading Limited
The parent company. Consultancy practice, trade services, commodities, construction and agritech, and information services. Registered in Kenya, headquartered in Nairobi.
More about the company
AOG Media
Africa On Go Media, founded 2025. Documentaries, cinematography, videography, photography, podcasts and livestreaming. The production capability behind our field documentation and communications deliverables.
africaongo.com
Smallholder Farmers
The documentary channel that profiles East African farmers with their real financial data. It is our public evidence base, our farmer relationship engine and our most direct link to the people our work is meant to serve.
Published on YouTube
What the channel is for
Every episode is a farmer, a place and a set of numbers the farmer agreed to publish. That discipline is the group’s shared standard: AOG Media films it, Smallholder Farmers publishes it, and HAGRO’s advisory work is held to it.
Our strategy
Where we choose to compete
Five lanes we can defend, rather than a list of everything we could be hired to do.
- Own the primary dataBe the source others cite for East African farm economics, through direct collection and the Smallholder Farmers channel. Data of this kind is expensive to build, it compounds, and it cannot be subcontracted at bid stage.
- Bid as the delivery halfBe the named local partner a prime cannot assemble at short notice: field teams, county relationships and aggregation infrastructure already in place on the day the contract is signed.
- Trade and advise, openly governedKeep the commercial divisions running, because they are what make the advice credible, and manage the conflict in the open rather than pretending it away.
- Follow the chain, not the borderExpand across Eastern Africa where a commodity chain and an existing buyer relationship already pull us, rather than opening offices and hoping for work.
- Make compliance a filter that removes othersHold registrations, safeguarding, environmental and social, and data protection to the standard the largest funders score, so eligibility screening shortens the field in our favour.
Our enablers
What makes the strategy possible
Operating divisions that carry real risk
Trade and commodities, construction and agritech, information services. They hold inventory, meet specifications and absorb loss, which is why our cost assumptions hold when tested.
Production capability in house
AOG Media produces our field documentation and funder communications, so the deliverables that others buy in are made by people who were in the field.
A farmer network that predates the contract
Relationships built through years of trade and documentary work, with consent recorded for the specific use. It is there on the day the programme starts, not recruited afterwards.
A retained specialist panel
Agronomy and value chains, agricultural economics, monitoring and evaluation, gender and inclusion, irrigation engineering, food safety. Named individually with curricula vitae in every proposal, never presented as staff.
Governance built to be inspected
Compliance reporting to the board, a register of commercial interests, no self review of deliverables, and published safeguarding, anti-fraud and environmental and social policies.
Leadership
The people accountable for the work
A small senior team, deliberately. On our assignments the people named in the proposal are the people who do the work.
Hellen Nangila
Accountable for the group. Signs proposals, consortium agreements and contracts, and holds the trade and commodities business directly.
Patricia Nasike
Positioning, the funding pipeline and the decision on what we bid for. Owns partner and consortium relationships, and the briefing notes.
Anna-Maria Patrick
Contracts and consortium agreements, procurement registration across our operating countries, our register of commercial interests, and farmer data under the Data Protection Act 2019.
Michael Jesse
Field documentation, the Smallholder Farmers channel and our market intelligence work.
Declared interest: also a director of AOG Media.How four people deliver a three-year programme
The senior team is small on purpose, and assignments are staffed from a retained panel of specialists: agronomy and value chains, agricultural economics, monitoring and evaluation, gender and inclusion, irrigation engineering, food safety. Panel members are named individually in every proposal with their curricula vitae attached, never presented as staff.
Nobody reviews their own work. Every deliverable is checked before it leaves the firm by a director who is not on that assignment, and our compliance function reports to the board rather than to the Managing Director, because it holds the register of our own commercial interests. Where we would advise on a commodity we also trade, the interest is declared in the proposal or we do not bid.
Our values
Five values, and what each one costs us
Evidence
If we cannot show you where a figure came from, it does not go in the report. This has cost us work. It is worth it every time.
Independence
Our compliance function reports to the board, not to the Managing Director, because it holds the register of our own trading interests. Where we would advise on a commodity we also trade, we declare it or we do not bid.
Proximity
Being local is not a procurement category. It is the reason we are still reachable after the programme closes, and the people we worked with can find us.
Delivery
We take contracts, not just recommendations. The bottleneck in this sector is not ideas, it is execution far from the capital, in seasons that do not wait.
Respect
Farmers make capital allocation decisions every season with imperfect information and real downside. We treat them as operators, not beneficiaries, and the analysis improves immediately.
What we believe
Four convictions that shape how we take work
A number should survive being checked
If we cannot show you where a figure came from, we will not put it in a report. This costs us occasionally. It is worth it every time.
Farmers are businesses, not beneficiaries
The people we work with make capital allocation decisions every season with imperfect information and real downside. Treat them as operators and the analysis improves immediately.
Delivery is harder than design
The bottleneck in East African agriculture is not ideas. It is execution in places that are far from the capital, in seasons that do not wait.
Local should mean accountable
Being a local firm is not a procurement category. It means we are still here when the programme closes, and the people we worked with can find us.
Looking for our credentials?
Registrations, compliance, references and the full capability statement are on the Work With Us page.