Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025
Inez van Oord is the co-founder of Fiber Foods Group, a company that creates economic, social, and sustainable value for all stakeholders. Fiber Foods develops clean-label, whole-food ingredients in Africa that help food producers meet the growing consumer demand for healthier, more sustainable products. Fiber Foods is the inventor of PrimeJack® — a premium dehydrated jackfruit ingredient designed for large-scale food manufacturers.
"We thought that we should tap into a crop that men were not yet involved in... it became jackfruit, a crop that was literally growing everywhere in Uganda with such an abundance—going to waste—while farmers were cutting down their trees because they did not see the benefit financially." — Inez van Oord
Contact
Inez van Oord, Co-founder, Fiber Foods Group (Netherlands)
Website: www.fiberfoodsgroup.com
Pitch Summary
Inez van Oord, co-founder and CEO of Fiber Foods, describes launching a jackfruit value chain in Uganda to create income opportunities for women by leveraging an abundant, underused crop. Partnering with a successful vanilla producer enabled local drying near sourcing sites, optimizing idle dryers and expanding year-round work for farmers and staff. Initially targeting alt-protein markets, Fiber Foods shifted toward hybrid meat products as jackfruit’s fiber—validated by TNO for prebiotic benefits—addresses global fiber deficits and integrates well with meat processing. As a social enterprise controlling its supply chain, the company ensures fair wages and achieves a low footprint of 340 g CO2e per kilo by using existing trees and hydropower from the Nile. The approach has gained market traction, including McDonald’s Netherlands using their jackfruit in the Dutch Mac croquette, supported by early backers like Invest International.
Pitch Video