Africa-Press – Eswatini. One of the most sustainable businesses in our country, like many others, is agriculture.
Countries with growing economies focus a lot on agribusiness, not only for domestic consumption but also for export.
With such an opportunity in the agricultural industry, starting a business in farming can be the key to financial freedom. However, farming is capital-intensive and many young entrepreneurs fail to realise their dreams because of a lack of funding.
Depending on which, branch of farming you want to venture into, chances are you will need huge sums of money for infrastructure, equipment, implements and farm inputs.
Some farming projects take years before income can be generated. Take, for example, dairy farming. It requires huge sums of money to start and grow the business before the cows start producing milk. Nevertheless, one can still venture into agribusiness without necessarily having to do farming.
There are many young farmers in Eswatini who have the land and infrastructure for poultry, piggery and vegetable production but have challenges selling their produce. Starting an agricultural supply chain business can be an opportunity for both you and the farmers. All you need is to know who is producing what, where they are, and who you can sell to.
Managing The Value Chain
Instead of just buying fruits and vegetables from the farmers and selling them as they are to supermarkets, you can grade and package them beautifully, thereby improving their value.
Supermarket owners have so much work to do in managing their supply chain, so dealing with farmer direct might be time consuming and tedious. Yours is to take advantage of the farmers, who too have busy schedules in their fields.
Your business can bridge the supply chain gap between the farmer and consumers or retailers. You need to have a systematic approach to running an agricultural supply chain, especially when dealing with fruits and vegetables, to make sure you supply them and do not incur losses when they become stale.
You may need to invest in a cold storage van and cold storage equipment.
Fruits and vegetables have a short shelf life, so you need to have a good supply management system that will be sustainable for everyone in the supply chain.
You need to understand that when running a supply chain business, there are different stages involved, depending on the nature of the business.
If, for example, you deal in fruits and vegetables, your stage may be the transportation from farmers to your storage and packaging facility, and then from the storage and packing facility to the customer.
While your supply chain may end with the supermarkets you supply, the success of your business goes as far as the final consumer of the fruits and vegetables.
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