I walked through an industrial area in Thika and realized 60% of Go-downs have been converted to this farm feed business. All with trucks delivering raw materials and several men loading and unloading them with dusty heads.
How lucrative is this business?
Is the market saturated?
Is it easy to set up the feed mixing plant?
Cost of inputs is quite high making the finished product expensive to livestock farmers…
Most of these feed manufacturers make substandard feeds, unfortunately.
But the business is lucrative if the feeds are quality.
Why won’t farmers form co-ops? It seems like a logical thing to do that you’d assume it’d be the norm rather than the exception.
Thank you China . Enzi ya kutegemea Unga group is long gone. Anyhow, milling has minted a few billionaires in the country…was initially exclusively (almost) a Mombasa affair
Most are zero-grazers . Highly disorganized and probably compete against each other.
Was once in a “Sacco” /co-op . We collectively owned all building transport vehicles . Tried setting a price floor/ceiling so that “we” could all benefit . E.g sell a truck of sand @40K . Within a week your hear there’s someone who’s selling @32k so as to make more ‘sells’(sic) / trips. Within a month it was back to chaos . Most were loanees anyway but the idea of how co-ops are meant to run is very foreign to Kenyans . Most people in similar ‘fields’ view each other as competitors rather than patners
Then maybe that’s the market gap to be exploited. Professionally run co-ops that enlist farmers but charge a percentage. You be trustworthy and offer them more benefits than their peers.
Coops can only succeed and grow if they get strong educated and dedicated leadership. Most coops i know of have semi literate bonobos as leaders and they never go far before collapsing
Go for it,just make sure your feeds are of good quality and you have end user reviews. Next year naingia hio industry very very promising. Raw materials chukua brazil.
Farmers should concentrate on raising livestock. Let entrepreneurs concentrate on making feeds.
- Farmers are not entrepreneurs?
- Start by telling the Gathecas to stop making their own feeds.
With all due respect, Sir, when I read opinions like yours Huwa Nasikia kutapika.
Like I did when Gatheca was addressing us during the juzi AGRF Summit.He was calling on ‘Youths’ to ‘take up Agribusiness seriously’ and highlighted the revival of the 4K Clubs in schools as a measure that shall go a long way in ensuring that.
Hogwash policies and mere roundtable talks is, I dare say, what is all ailing uptake of Agriculture by the majority of citizens who willing.
We are demystifying Farming as a passive income generator to what it should be.A business!
So when you say that Farmers should leave feed making to entrepreneurs you are simply talking Nonsense.
Farming, subsistence or not, is an enterprise by itself. Thus it should be viable, scalable and profitable.Those are the 3 tenets of a business and so, that farmer should maximiser his profit by reducing his cost of production.
What a better way o doing this than producing his own animal feeds which ensure quality and it’s cheaper?
Tell him Bro.I don’t understand why a farmer should buy feeds.Theyr too expensive and the quality is not assured for some brands.
well, see his handle. he is under influence
Kuna young girl najua anachanganya hizo animal feeds huko nakuru. The job is challenging. Dirty Competition too. Aliniambia she does very good animal feeds na she has alot of clients due to good reviews. One competitor coarsed one of her employees into selling him mangunia za huyo dem za packaging. The competitor packed substandard feeds and sold using her packaging. Waaahhh the damage it did wacha tu. Noma sana.