In October 2010, Maria Odido won the EMRC-Rabobank Project Incubator Award of US$15 000 at the AgriBusiness Forum held in Kampala, Uganda. We caught up with her and asked her some questions about her award.
EMRC:
Tell us about Bee Natural Uganda – when did
it start and what was your vision?
Maria Odido: Bee Natural Uganda was set up in 2008 after
my initial company Bee Natural Products Ltd went into receivership. The vision remains the same as the first
company I set up: To work with rural producers so that together we produce a
world class product and brand that comes from our local rural areas that we can
all be proud of.
EMRC: Why did you come to the Agribusiness Forum
2010?
MO: I received quiet by chance an
email from EMRC 10 days before the conference inviting me to attend as a
conference participant. On reading the
document, I realised there was also an Incubator Award. I convinced my company that we should
participate in the award competition, even if we did not win. The idea was to put our company out there.
EMRC: What did you hope to receive from this forum?
MO: The best I had hoped for was to
introduce my company to a wider audience.
I had made enormous strides in the previous company which had actually
grown too fast. My company had been the
buzz of the agriculture and trade sectors.
Then the bottom fell out on us and we went down all the way. When we restarted, I had promised myself that
I would be quiet and focus on business growth
EMRC:
What inspired you to enter the Project
Incubator Award?
MO: (i) I
read about the other companies that had entered the awards and realised that
they were mostly SME’s and therefore we
would not be out of our depth.
(ii) I felt that opening our company to
this competition would market our company in the right forum. That hopefully we
would meet an equity investor or some honey company that would want to invest
in us to increase our production with the goal to start exporting to other
countries beyond the East African region after fully exploiting this region.
(iii)
We were setting up a new product line - Jams and Marmalades. I was hoping to meet consultants who could
advise us on this new project in terms of financial viability and production
possibilities. I could not understand
why these 2 products are monopolised by Zesta in Kenya when Uganda has such an abundance
of fruit. So, participating in the conference and particularly in the award, I believed
I could meet professionals from whom I could gain some knowledge and insight
into this.
EMRC:
How did you feel when you won the prize?
MO: Goodness! It was completely unexpected! I had listened to the presentations of the
other competitors and suddenly I felt really small! I felt I had not done as much as they
had. I had nearly gone bankrupt. I’d had
to pull myself up by my shoe strings and go back into the same business that
nearly destroyed me, and suddenly I was winning a prize for it! It was incredible! I had never won a cash prize before. I thought, ‘who are these guys who look beyond
the visible’? I will always be
thankfully to EMRC - Rabobank for that recognition. Never had I expected that I
would be holding the 1st prize. Believe
me.
EMRC: How did this victory help Bee Natural as a
business? How was the prize invested?
MO: (i)We received congratulatory
messages from across Africa and Europe. We still hope that we will have
consultants who can help us in improving and applying newer technology into our
business.
(ii)
We
reviewed our new products and realised that we were not going to be wise to
invest this money in the jams and marmalades that were still in the incubator
stage. Yet we were so much more advanced
in our current bee business. After
discussions with my staff, we agreed that the prize money would be put to
better use if.
- We re-equipped our Queen Rearing yard. This way, we are able to increase our income
through selling of colonies to our beekeepers.
This would improve and shorten production periods for our producers
therefore bringing in income faster and improving their investments in this
enterprise, especially for those who took loans to buy hives.
- Along with
our Queen Rearing Yard, we have also introduced new bee products such as
packaged comb honey - a novelty in East Africa, and we expect to start packing creamed
honey later this year.
- We have also changed our packaging from plastic pots
to glass jars. We had carried out a
marketing study early last year where our honey obtained first place in product
quality and almost bottom place in packaging.
It had become important that we meet our consumer demands.
EMRC: What other developments have taken place in
your business since the Agribusiness Forum 2010? How have the contacts made during the forum
added value to your business? And how has the Project incubator award elevated
your business?
MO: We are taken more seriously
now. An evaluation of our activities was
carried out recently by Kilimo Trust an organisation that funds our producers
to improve their production. Of the
several companies in which they are involved countrywide, we were one of the 4
selected for further development.
Unfortunately, during the Agribusiness forum, we did not go beyond
discussions with the contact companies.
Perhaps because at the time, I was unable to have meaningful discussions
as some days I could not attend. I had
contacted malaria and could not attend all the days. However, we are growing at the right pace at
the moment.
EMRC: Who should attend the EMRC AgriBusiness Forum
2011?
MO: (i) There are many companies that
do very innovative things in very small ways in our countries. They struggle,
because they are too small for big financial institutions to take interest and
the governments do not support them in anyway.
I nearly lost everything because I had invested in the rural
producer. This is essentially a
government responsibility, but if I wanted the product then I had to do
something about getting it produced. I
paid a very heavy price for that. There are many of these stories across
Africa. Those are people that need to be
recognised and invested in.
(ii)
Governments
should attend so that together we can discuss how to achieve a practical role
for everyone in order to develop agriculture in our countries.
(iii) Banks and financial institutions. They do not understand the value of designing
suitable financing for this sector, especially in Uganda. Financial institutions are too rigid and do
not understand working with such companies for a win-win position. If this could be achieved, we would have so
many more local investors, who can play long-term role in agricultural economic
development
(iv) Large companies with whom small companies can
discuss and learn from in order to understand how to overcome growth
hurdles. This could also lead to
possible partnerships where franchising can be discussed.
EMRC: Why should people enter the
Project Incubator Award?
MO: In entering the Project Incubator
Award, a company/person can get recognition for their activities and can also
measure themselves against other participants and meet with people and
organisations, to see if they are on the right path or not. To be selected to present your company to
this great audience, whether one wins or not, gives a company leverage and
recognition.
EMRC: How should people that enter the Project
Incubator Award competition prepare their presentations? Any tips to a good
presentation?
MO: A power point seems to be the most
effective. However, while data and
information is obviously crucial to show what achievements have been made, I
think that it is also important that participants demonstrate their knowledge
and commitment to the business they do.
I say this because in my business there was no other way. Many of us, in the situation that I found
myself, would have walked away to do something easier. Incubation is not easy. It may be important to demonstrate the work
that goes into the incubation, the success realised and the challenges
faced. In that, EMRC can get a better
perspective into how well the award money will be utilised, and follow up will
be easier and more effective.
EMRC: What is the key to creating a sustainable business project in your
community in Africa?
MO: I am a local investor. For that reason a sustainable business
project for me is of high importance.
Africa rightly relies on Foreign Direct Investments. However, our role as local investors is even
more important. We understand our
communities better, are more in touch with their realities and are able to understand
their intricacies. In understanding a
community it is easier to work with them and to gain success not just for the
community but for the company as well, and longer term sustainable growth for
our economies in Africa.