Value addition should be a priority in any business. Value-adding activity has a higher gross margin than the product prior to the value-adding process, in most cases. In terms of agriculture, value-adding activity can take many forms. It can be as simple as dividing vegetables into consumer-size packaging, instead of 25 – 50 kg sacks, or it can be as complicated as creating a production line of finished goods, say, frozen vegetables, or French fries ready for the frying pot.
Up to now, I have not been lucky enough to find a farmer who processes her harvest into a finished product. But my luck has just changed. I met Ellinace Mwale, from Malawi, online a week ago.
Ellinace Mwale has been in agriculture for some years and has her farm in Lumbadzi, Dowa, in the center region of the country. On approximately 2 acres of land, she cultivates tomatoes, soybeans, and ground nuts, and in addition, she has a fruit tree nursery. However, her focus is on Birds Eye chili, from which she makes exquisite hot sauce under the brand Sunrise Kapilipili Hot Sauce.
Growing up in a farming family, Ellinace Mwale learned from a young age that agriculture can be a source of income, and with age, she came to understand that agriculture is the best self-starting business you can find. As she said, “One of the challenges with starting a business is to source the funds necessary for the start-up. In agriculture, you can start small, with whatever you have, and grow, on your own”.
An additional benefit of going into agriculture is how diverse it is. You have all possible fruits and vegetables to grow, or you may dedicate yourself to livestock. Then is fish farming, and other variations of farming. Once you have decided on your core business, you may grow your business in any direction you like.
First, you may simply increase your volume, meaning if you have an acre of tomatoes, you add another acre and sell it within the same market. Second, you can grow by finding new markets, for instance, selling directly to restaurants. Third, you can add new products, as Ellinace Mwale is doing. She started crowing chili, and the first year she sold all her harvest fresh. In the second year, she added a new product, the Sunrise Kapilipili Hot Sauce. So, as Ellinace Mwale says, “The possibilities are endless and only limited by your own imagination, or lack thereof”.
She dedicates about one-fifth of an acre of her land to the Birds Eye chili, harvesting once per year, since she uses natural rain for irrigation. The Birds Eye chili cultivation started only two years ago, and the first batches of the hot sauce came around this year. What a good fortune for me to be able to follow the process from the very beginning.
In our next post with Ellinace Mwale, we will be talking to her about her farm, the different crops she has, and other details. Stay put and follow Agri Project Africa for the whole story and other stories like this. Please share Ellinace Mwale’s story on your platforms.
