How I’ve gone around brokers to earn more

Her home in Nairobi looks like a huge big store for farm produce that includes vegetables.

Alice Migwi has converted part of her home in Kileleshwa into a depot where she packages her fresh fruits and vegetables and then distributes them to restaurants and hotels in the city.

Seeds of Gold finds Alice and her employees busy sorting out fruits and vegetables and loading them into a waiting van for delivery in a city restaurant.

Our talk is intermittently interrupted by business calls as Alice gives instructions on what to deliver to employees and informs her clients when she would deliver their orders.

However, the depot that is usually a beehive of activity is just a small department in Alice’s grand empire that began with only a small vegetable garden behind her house in 2012.

“I started with a kitchen garden. I would grow my family’s vegetables. Soon, I realised I had a lot of surplus and I approached mama mbogas in the estate who were very interested in buying the excess harvest. I later realised it was a profitable business,” says Alice.

Alice talked to her husband and the two decided to scale-up the business.

The couple bought three acres in Gitaru, Kikuyu and invested Sh5 million which they used to buy an agro-solar drip irrigation system, setting up three greenhouses and buying seedlings.

It seemed like a great plan and Alice thought that they would recover their money after the first harvest. She was wrong.

“We lost the entire investment in a night because it rained hailstones. The greenhouses were also destroyed. We lost almost Sh2 million worth of crop in a single day. That is when I realised that farming is not an easy task,” recounts Alice, who had to pump more money into the business.

She notes that farming does not start and end with planting a seed and waiting for bumper harvest. “It is a synergy of entrepreneurship, spirited marketing strategies, branding and understanding market trends and consumer needs,” says Alice, who has nine employees.

Armed with the realisation, Alice branded her business Migwi Farm, dealing in organic high-end fresh fruit and vegetables.
The farmer had sharpened her entrepreneurial skills by working for shipping logistics company MEARSK for 15 years.

“Branding is any businessperson’s footprint,” she advises. “Our logo and our position in the market mirrors our target market. We also use social media to leverage on our brand.”

FARM BRANDING

Branding her farm was important in making her produce stand out as it communicates to her clients that she is serious about farming.

With three greenhouses, two for horticulture and one for seedlings, Migwi Farm started out with coloured capsicums (red, yellow and green) and then ventured into other vegetables. Migwi Farm uses an agro-solar drip irrigation system that relies on the sun and gravity to water the land.

They avoid using pesticides and herbicides opting for organic methods of eliminating pests as well as crop rotation which also allows the soil to regain its nutrients.

“The produce takes longer to flourish since we do not use fertiliser. Organic farming needs patience but it fetches good money.”

In the greenhouse, Alice plants herbs and capsicum but often interchanges them with cucumber. In the open field, where she ventured as she expanded her business, she plants potatoes and maize. She supplies tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, Italian spinach, onions, leeks, parsley, chives, basil, traditional vegetables, spinach, potatoes and maize.

“The high-valued crops such as capsicums and a variety of herbs are very sensitive and they require a controlled atmosphere to grow well and meet market specification.”

She started supplying tomatoes and chili to a friend’s restaurant until her clientele grew into a wide network that includes city restaurants and hospitality training schools.

“The job is demanding. I am required to be always on my toes. We cater for clients from early in the morning to late in the evening. Therefore, timing, quality and availability are key in succeeding in this business,” she advises.

Alice has found herself overwhelmed with demand. She now buys from fellow farmers produce to sell, but it must adhere to her standards.

“We work with out-growers who are youth and women. We tell them what to grow and how to grow it depending on their knowledge in farming and soil. We also insist on natural methods such as crop rotation.

After harvest, the produce goes through quality control checks at the farm and later it is ferried to her home in Kileleshwa where further checks are administered.

“On the farm, the tomatoes are sorted according to the size and quality and then transported to the depot. They are also checked to ensure they do not have any diseases. At home, the checks include weighing to the client’s orders, packaging of fruits such as strawberries and adding value by chopping the salads and vegetables according to client needs.”

While farming and supplying vegetables to restaurants is a profitable business, Alice says her greatest challenge is that most clients expect credit and sometimes the payments take very long to come.

She notes that farmers need to start practising what she terms as ‘smart farming’, where a farmer understands a client’s needs before setting out to farm.

“Many venture into farming thinking that there is a lot of money without understanding the market. Don’t aim to harvest watermelons in the cold season because people will not eat watermelons during the period. Understand how your clientele behaves and come up with products that they will not put down.”
Alice says that marketing and directly selling her produce is more profitable than using middlemen because they often short-change farmers.

“Farmers should take up marketing and branding to get full benefits from their ventures.”

She also advises farmers to understand market forces, especially pricing, which is not always as straightforward as many expect.

“In a few years’ time, I envision myself managing a wide network of out-growers. That is the future of farming,” says the mother of two, whose interest in farming started while living in Uganda and Tanzania between 2005 and 2012.

According to James Ngomeli, the chairman of Chartered Institute of Marketing, farmers need to take marketing and branding seriously because this extra effort is what makes the venture profitable and worthwhile.

“Marketing is making your product different from your neighbour’s. It shows why people should buy your cabbages. It has to do with what value you have added to your products to make them stand out.”

Ngomeli adds that products that have been branded and properly marketed sell almost twice since consumers connect with a specific brand.

“Branding allows visibility and recognition. It also shows your level of professionalism and it shows that people can trust your products.