Building an Export Business Through Organic Growth

Eddy Djagou is the founder and CEO of Djaagou-a Export LLC, based in Muscatine, IA. He is also the Small Business Administration’s Exporter of the Year for 2022!

Born and raised in French-speaking Togo in West Africa, Eddy holds a BA in Marketing and immigrated to the US in 2011 on a Diversity Visa. The Immigration Act of 1990 inspired the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program, a lottery by which fifty thousand people come to the US annually. In Togo, explains Eddy, between one to two million people apply for the lottery; only one to two hundred are selected and submitted for consideration by the West African government. “My dream changed” upon arrival, he says.

Following a two-year integration period in Illinois – learning English, working, obtaining proper identification – Eddy relocated to Muscatine, IA, where he quickly realized that residents typically traveled at least an hour to neighboring cities to get any international or ethnic goods – like fufu!

To address that need, Eddy founded Djaagou-a Export LLC. Established in 2017, the company grew organically, at first simply sending samples of US food products to friends in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, and other regions of West Africa. What started with small packages of goods by 2020 turned into container shipments of rice, sugar, meat and fish, and snacks.

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Eddy set up a storefront, found a supplier in Chicago, and simultaneously launched an importing business, addressing individual domestic and foreign customer requests. A visit to his homeland brought in larger orders from West African-based importers, turning Djaagou-a Export LLC into a B2B, B2C, and B2G (government) operation.

Today, Djaagou-a Export LLC has the added mission of supporting the local community with their own exporting endeavors, so Eddy continues to work closely with the State of Iowa, the US Commercial Service, EXIM Bank, and the Small Business Administration (including a STEP Grant used for website translation). The opportunities that were made available to him are open to anyone: trade shows in foreign countries, 50% reimbursement grants to get started in exporting (for sending samples overseas, for example), and funding for expansion.

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His best advice? Small US businesses that imagine exporting as “risky” should be assured that there is a lot of opportunity and government resources to help them succeed. “Do not look afraid, try something good!”

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