{"id":24284,"date":"2022-08-16T16:47:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business"},"modified":"2022-08-16T16:56:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T16:56:19","slug":"meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business","title":{"rendered":"Meet Musanze woman with a thriving mushroom business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>A <\/b>deline Umukunzi, 31, is reaping big from a mushroom growing business she started in 2018 with merely Rwf50, 000 as capital.<\/p>\n

After graduating from high school, in 2018, Umukunzi who lives in Musanze District was worried that her low level of education would not get a decent job. But she was not ready to give up. She therefore visited a local farmers\u2019 organization intent on learning from what they were doing.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi talked to farmers who were growing different crops and found out that farming was actually costly. But all hope was not lost as she learnt that mushroom growing was unique as it required little capital to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where the idea of mushroom farming came from. I met a mother who was cultivating mushrooms and told me all about what is needed to cultivate mushrooms. I realized that it requires little capital to start such a business, on a small size of land. I started my business with Rwf50, 000 as capital,\u201d Umukunzi told Doing Business.<\/p>\n

Clients enjoying the sambusas which Umukunzi makes from her mushrooms. Photo: Courtesy.<\/b><\/p>\n

At the time, farmers were buying mushroom spores from Kigali.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne mushroom spore goes for Rwf500 and mushrooms are harvested every three months. With capital ranging from Rwf5, 000 and above I realised that I can start the business because you can even grow mushrooms in a basin if you have no big space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mushrooms grow from spores (not seeds) which are so tiny that you can\u2019t see them with the naked eye. Rather than soil, mushroom spores rely on substances like sawdust, grain, straw, or wood chips for nourishment. Mushroom spores travel from the mushroom along wind currents, and when they land in a moist place, they germinate.<\/p>\n

To get her Rwf50, 000 capital, Umukunzi first joined a group of 11 youth in her community to start a savings group.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of us used to save Rwf200 every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

After getting Rwf50, 000, the group rented a small house at Rwf5, 000 in which they cultivated mushroom spores worth Rwf40, 000.<\/p>\n

By then, each member managed her own mushroom business in the same place they rented but they would harvest together and sell their produce in Kigali. In the beginning, they counted losses as they had not gained all required skills in growing mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Some therefore got discouraged and sought other forms of employment.<\/p>\n

However, Umukunzi and two other colleagues persisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter six months Kigali Farms Company equipped us with more skills. We invested in 100 mushroom spores worth Rwf90, 000. We harvested Rwf180, 000 of produce, meaning we had in Rwf90, 000 profits,\u201d Umukunzi said.<\/p>\n

Each later opened her individual company but remained operating in the same mushroom growing site.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi started a company called J&A Innovators Ltd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would supply our harvest to clients together. We also signed different contracts with hotels and restaurants. I currently supply my harvest on the local market and the DRC market. As clients kept increasing, I also increased capital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lately, she leases Rwf500, 000 of space, every three years, for mushroom growing and she is growing mushrooms in 26 small shelters.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery shelter has 300 mushroom spores. The 300 mushroom spores produce 120 kilos. We start harvesting between seven and 15 days. We will continue harvesting for three months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One kilo of mushroom harvest goes for between Rwf2, 000 and Rwf2, 500.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi generates between Rwf6.2 million and Rwf7.8 million, every three months, from her 26 shelters.<\/p>\n

As she kept generating more and more income, the agripreneur said, she set aside some money to enroll at a university in neighboring DR Congo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied general nursing at university for three years and I graduated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her business has equipped hundreds of teen and single mothers with mushroom growing skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have six permanent workers; four women and two men. I also employ 70 casual workers every three months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Plans and challenges<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to start producing my own mushroom spores which are my raw materials, instead of sourcing them from others because I want to cut such costs and increase profits,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi also seeks to add value to the mushrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes produce flour from mushrooms by drying and grinding them but this is done in a traditional way. I want to buy modern drying and processing machines so as to add value to mushrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also makes Sambusa from mushrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to modernise the value addition and have different units of production,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi told Doing Business that the main challenge startups are facing in the agriculture sector is access to loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not got any loan from banks. I tried but failed. Banks need collaterals such as land. We need them to take our business as collateral because the land I am using is not mine,\u201d she noted, adding that banks take agriculture as a risky sector.<\/p>\n

The sector gets only 5.2 per cent of total loans disbursed by financial institutions in the country.<\/p>\n

Rwanda targets to double agriculture sector lending to 10.4 per cent, by 2024. The government is expected to start an agriculture facility with an initial investment of $350 million (about Rwf350 billion), Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente recently said, indicating that it will help provide farmers with loans at less than 10 per cent interest rate.<\/p>\n

Umukunzi wishes the government could also consider mushroom farmers once the project is implemented so they can access to lending considering that hers is a viable business that can be carried out in all parts of the country.<\/p>\n

According to the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), in the past five years, the mushroom industry experienced low production.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are 32 companies and 20 cooperatives that produce around 629.200 tubes.<\/p>\n

More than 123 individual farmers are cultivating mushroom tubes and they harvest around 523,600 tons per year.<\/p>\n

According to RAB, the government wants to boost mushroom growers\u2019 capacity through training, research in addition to dissemination of new and better mushroom varieties so as to increase production.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are three varieties of mushrooms grown in Rwanda. Three other varieties are under research.<\/p>\n

About 35,000 mushroom farmers were trained on Juncao technology, a Chinese-invented technology to grow mushrooms using low-cost materials. Juncao technology uses chopped grass as a substrate for growing edible and medicinal mushrooms.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. A deline Umukunzi, 31, is reaping big from a mushroom growing business she started in 2018 with merely Rwf50, 000 as capital. After graduating from high school, in 2018, Umukunzi who lives in Musanze District was worried that her low level of education would not get a decent job. But she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15,28],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-24284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Musanze woman with a thriving mushroom business - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A deline Umukunzi, 31, is reaping big from a mushroom growing business she started in 2018 with merely Rwf50, 000 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Musanze woman with a thriving mushroom business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A deline Umukunzi, 31, is reaping big from a mushroom growing business she started in 2018 with merely Rwf50, 000 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-16T16:47:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-16T16:56:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_7-62fbcc1d28e40.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"527\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Meet Musanze woman with a thriving mushroom business\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-16T16:47:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-16T16:56:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\"},\"wordCount\":1048,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_7-62fbcc1d28e40.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/meet-musanze-woman-with-a-thriving-mushroom-business\",\"name\":\"Meet Musanze woman with a thriving mushroom business - 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