Entrepreneurship Zone: 31 March 2023 :: Kenyan entrepreneur leaves Nation Media Group for gooseberry venture

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Entrepreneurship Zone: 31 March 2023 ::  Kenyan entrepreneur leaves Nation
Media Group for gooseberry venture

 

	
 




Viola Maina, a bachelor of arts graduate from the University of Nairobi, is
the founder and CEO of Gooseberry Delight Limited. Located just outside the
town of Eldoret, Kenya, her company specialises in using gooseberries – a
small, round fruit – to create an array of products such as sauces, juice
and jam.

Before founding her fruit-processing company, Maina had an extensive
17-year career with the Nation Media Group, the largest media house in East
and Central Africa. Working in the advertising department, she eventually
left her position to venture into the uncertain world of agribusiness.

Maina resigned in 2017, seeking opportunities that would allow her to
better utilise her skills and empower her community. She wanted to pursue an
agriculture-related venture, but managing two jobs simultaneously was
impossible, so she had to make a choice. “Leaving Nation was incredibly
difficult,” she admits. It took her two years to finally make the decision
to leave the company.

Getting started was no easy task. Initially, she connected with her friend
Bernadette Murgor, the founder of Smart Farmer magazine, and worked at the
company. This allowed her the opportunity to interact with farmers and
understand their challenges. One of the driving factors behind her decision
to join the agricultural magazine was to establish connections with farmers
through field events.

During one of the events Maina hosted while working for Smart Farmer
magazine, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO)
held an exhibition featuring underutilised fruits, including gooseberries.
After learning more about these fruits, Maina’s interest was piqued. “KALRO
informed me that there was a farmer growing gooseberries in Tigoni, Limuru,
so I paid him a visit. Stephen Mwanzia, the farmer, was very experienced and
discussed the various aspects and benefits of growing gooseberries. I was
truly intrigued,” says Maina.

Maina left Smart Farmer in 2019 and dedicated her time to engaging with
farmers and encouraging them to cultivate gooseberries. Later that year, she
invited KALRO to educate farmers on the advantages of growing the crop.
Eighty farmers attended the field day event, gaining valuable insights about
gooseberries from industry experts.

One day, Maina was invited by KALRO to attend an event at a three-acre demo
farm owned by a local farmer. Unfortunately, the farmer was harvesting
gooseberries without a market to sell them. Seeing the opportunity, Maina
decided to purchase the fruits from the farmer and began searching for
buyers. She bought the gooseberries for $0.23 and sold them for $0.31 in
different markets around Eldoret. As the fruits started to gain traction,
she decided to fully commit to the business. Farmers began producing
gooseberries in larger quantities, and Maina saw the potential for a company
that could buy from them and handle the packaging and sales.

Maina began promoting her products on social media, and one day she
received an order for 500 punnets from a supermarket in Nairobi. Her
business was thriving until the Covid-19 outbreak disrupted everything. The
places she had been selling to stopped buying as the pandemic affected
various businesses across the country. However, in September 2020, her
company experienced a resurgence when someone interested in exporting the
fruits contacted her.

When Maina received the phone call, she didn’t have enough fruits to fulfil
the request. Fortunately, just the previous week, she had spoken with a
woman from Kitale who had a 20-acre gooseberry farm. Maina visited the
farmer, negotiated with her, and they reached an agreement on the price. “We
agreed, and I loaded the fruits into a pickup and headed to Nairobi,” she
recalls.

Another customer, a food scientist working for a food company, purchased
400kg of gooseberries from Maina. But, in 2021, when the food scientist
contacted her again, she didn’t have any fruits available. The farmer from
Kitale had exhausted her supply.

Consequently, Maina needed to encourage more farmers to grow gooseberries,
as she had already secured a market for them. However, she soon found
herself facing an excess of fruits and struggled to sell the entire supply
of raw gooseberries. It was then that she decided to process the surplus
fruits into products like juice and jam.

Eager to learn about food processing and value addition, Maina enrolled in
a short course at Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute
(KIRDI) in Eldoret, where she learned how to make jam, juices and other
products from gooseberries. Additionally, she visited a woman in Nairobi who
provided her with further training, as well as a food technology expert who
shared valuable tips.

The client who purchased gooseberries from Maina for export advised her to
obtain certification for traceability purposes. Consequently, she registered
with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). After receiving approval from
KEBS, it allowed them to start packaging and supplying supermarkets.

Once the gooseberries are sourced, they are sorted before being processed.
At present, Maina’s company produces gooseberry sweet and hot sauce,
gooseberry chili sauce, gooseberry jam and gooseberry juice.

Maina sells her products through several retailers, including Transmatt,
New Yako Supermarket, Yako Household, Uzuri Supermarket, all branches of
Tulin Supermarket, Eldomatt Hyper, Eldo Raiya Supermarket and Kenmart
Supermarket. She notes that the recommended retail price for the jam is
$0.99 for a 250g container and $2.06 for 500g. The hot sauce is priced at
$1.30 and $1.60 per bottle.

Gooseberry Delight’s hot and sweet sauce is the company’s best-selling
product. On a weekly basis, it sells around 20 boxes, each containing twelve
250g units, as well as 10 five-litre bottles to hotels in the Eldoret
region. Hotels have emerged as a notable new market segment for the
company’s sauces.

Recently, Maina’s company showcased its products at the Agricultural Trade
Fair held at the University of Eldoret and also participated in an event in
Mwanza, Tanzania. To date, she has invested approximately $46,000 in
capital, which covers research, equipment purchases, and business
operations.


- Howwemadeitinafrica

 

 


 


 


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