Semusunge earns sh18m annually from growing vanilla
Feb 16, 2009
THE aroma of vanilla fills the air as I gawk at the over 30 blankets spread on polythene sheets. “<i>Zikya bulamu</i> (The vanilla isn’t fully dried yet),†says a woman, as she spreads a blanket. “<i>Sizona</i> (not all),†a man retorts. When mo
Everyday for the next few months, The New Vision will run a series of stories on wealth creation role models from all over the country for Ugandans who would like to learn from them to generate wealth from our natural resources.
By Joel Ogwang
THE aroma of vanilla fills the air as I gawk at the over 30 blankets spread on polythene sheets. “Zikya bulamu (The vanilla isn’t fully dried yet),†says a woman, as she spreads a blanket. “Sizona (not all),†a man retorts. When moisture is removed, vanilla changes colour from green to black.
While Mukalazi wrings fingers of the crop to sort out the dried ones from the wet ones, a woman by-passes me, carrying four rolls of blankets on her shoulders to a vanilla store.
Fourteen people swap roles in the process of curing vanilla. Inside the murky store, dried vanilla is piled in wooden boxes ready for sale.
Misaki Semusunge, 70, sits on a veranda, as he monitors the workers, occasionally, walking around. “These people are so crafty,†he says. “I have to keep watch of them lest they pocket and steal fingers of vanilla.â€
In 2000, Semusunge started growing vanilla on three-acres. He harboured an ambition of transforming from peasantry to becoming a large scale commercial farmer. A few years down the road, his arable land size surged to 10 acres.
What riled him was that while sh200 was the peak of the vanilla price hike in Mukono, with a kilogramme fetching as much as sh100,000, his crop was immature.
Suffice it to say, vanilla was dubbed Mukono’s ‘green gold’.
Agricultural experts tagged the price surge on Cyclone Hyuda that struck Madagascar, the world’s leading producer of vanilla, resulting in bad weather and poor yields.
This surge in price led to multimillion investments in Mukono and brought to prominence local exporters like John Nviiri and Aga Ssekalala, among others. However, Semusunge was not a beneficiary that year.
“My vanilla had not yet matured,†he says. Five years later, he made his first harvest, harvesting 20kgs.
Then, a kilo of unprocessed vanilla cost sh5,000. The price of green vanilla fell from sh10,000 to sh5,000 and less, because Madagascar resumed its normal production.
Flabbergasted by the price drop, most vanilla farmers in Uganda slashed their plantations.
However, there is still yet no clear reason justifying the fall in local farm-gate prices of vanilla, since the international market prices have not fluctuated. While farmers mourned, Semusunge, with 17 others, foresaw a bright future, and formed Bitutwa farmers’ group.
“At sh5,000, we knew vanilla was still profitable,†he says. “When I mooted the idea of growing it on large scale, it was overwhelmingly received.â€
Semusunge was appointed the group’s head, thanks to his 10-acre plantation.
Because of their big membership and a focus to be big producers and exporters of the crop, the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) hired Buiga farm industries for advisory training.
“We were taught basics like planting, pollinating, harvesting and processing vanilla,†says Semusunge.
Soon, each member got a saucepan to boil vanilla, a thermometre to measure the boiling point and water levels, 10 blankets to cover the crop during curing and trial boxes for storage.
Each of the 17 group members contributed between 100kg to 800kg of vanilla as start-up requirement for membership.
Semusunge harvested 4,000kg. This dropped to 600kgs upon processing. In 2006, Bitutwa sold 700kg of processed vanilla to Buiga, followed by another 1,200kg in 2008. A kilo cost sh40,000.
“We earned more than sh40m that year,†he says. “I got over sh24m.†Because of the blossoming trade, the group hired 30 workers.
The group has harvested 1,000kg to date, hoping to sell in March. Processing vanilla lasts three months. About 6,000kg was bought from area residents.
The cured vanilla is sold to local buyers like Aga Ssekalala and John Nviri, at sh40,000 a kilogramme. “We hope to sell about 1,900kg in March,†Semusunge says.
Bitutwa has acquired a license from the Uganda Exports Promotions Board to start exporting vanilla to international markets.
For starters, the group wants to amass 3,000kg of processed vanilla before hitting foreign markets.
“But we are still learning how present exporters go about it,†he says. Semusunge harvests 800kg a year. This is little because of the menace cased by thieves who storm the plantations at night and steal maturing crops.
“Even the workers pocket the dried vanilla fingers,†he says. “But I search each of them before they leave.â€
He earned about sh20m from his ventures, but the coffee wilt has posed a sticky patch, ravaging eight acres of coffee in his orchard.
“NAADS gave me some acarisides, but it has not solved the problem,†he says. “But, when the stems dry, we cut them down to avoid multiplying.†Semusunge, who started farming with three acres, now boasts of 20 acres intercropped with vanilla and coffee. He harvests 100bags of 70kgs each year.
“If it was not for the coffee wilt, I would be harvesting 400 bags a year,†he says. With the price of unprocessed coffee fixed at sh1,800, Semusunge earns sh10m.
Processed coffee goes for sh3,000 a kilogramme. He says today’s farmer earns more than in the past. “I can surf the internet and get buyers directly, unlike in the past when it was only through middlemen that one could sell their products.â€
Semusunge’s biggest challenge has been one of unreliable market. “Some times we go six months without selling,†he says. “Yet I have to pay my workers promptly.â€
Because of this hitch, he has since slashed the number of his employees to 14. Semusunge was a store keeper at Electra (U) Ltd, an Italian firm in 1959. He quit his job after two years. Since then, he has been a farmer. “I left because I felt farming was profitable, compared to a white collar job,†he says.
“Even now, I am better than many office job holders. I do not regret my resignation.†Semusunge earns sh18m a year. He has built two houses, bought a car and 200 acres of land in Kyampisi. Semusunge wants to plant maize and matooke. “I have five cows and five goats,†he says.
FACT FILE
Name of farmer: Misaki Semusunge
Location of farm: Mukono
Enterprises: 10 acres of vanilla farm, five goats and five cows
How they started: Grew vanilla on a 3 acre piece of land
By Joel Ogwang
THE aroma of vanilla fills the air as I gawk at the over 30 blankets spread on polythene sheets. “Zikya bulamu (The vanilla isn’t fully dried yet),†says a woman, as she spreads a blanket. “Sizona (not all),†a man retorts. When moisture is removed, vanilla changes colour from green to black.
While Mukalazi wrings fingers of the crop to sort out the dried ones from the wet ones, a woman by-passes me, carrying four rolls of blankets on her shoulders to a vanilla store.
Fourteen people swap roles in the process of curing vanilla. Inside the murky store, dried vanilla is piled in wooden boxes ready for sale.
Misaki Semusunge, 70, sits on a veranda, as he monitors the workers, occasionally, walking around. “These people are so crafty,†he says. “I have to keep watch of them lest they pocket and steal fingers of vanilla.â€
In 2000, Semusunge started growing vanilla on three-acres. He harboured an ambition of transforming from peasantry to becoming a large scale commercial farmer. A few years down the road, his arable land size surged to 10 acres.
What riled him was that while sh200 was the peak of the vanilla price hike in Mukono, with a kilogramme fetching as much as sh100,000, his crop was immature.
Suffice it to say, vanilla was dubbed Mukono’s ‘green gold’.
Agricultural experts tagged the price surge on Cyclone Hyuda that struck Madagascar, the world’s leading producer of vanilla, resulting in bad weather and poor yields.
This surge in price led to multimillion investments in Mukono and brought to prominence local exporters like John Nviiri and Aga Ssekalala, among others. However, Semusunge was not a beneficiary that year.
“My vanilla had not yet matured,†he says. Five years later, he made his first harvest, harvesting 20kgs.
Then, a kilo of unprocessed vanilla cost sh5,000. The price of green vanilla fell from sh10,000 to sh5,000 and less, because Madagascar resumed its normal production.
Flabbergasted by the price drop, most vanilla farmers in Uganda slashed their plantations.
However, there is still yet no clear reason justifying the fall in local farm-gate prices of vanilla, since the international market prices have not fluctuated. While farmers mourned, Semusunge, with 17 others, foresaw a bright future, and formed Bitutwa farmers’ group.
“At sh5,000, we knew vanilla was still profitable,†he says. “When I mooted the idea of growing it on large scale, it was overwhelmingly received.â€
Semusunge was appointed the group’s head, thanks to his 10-acre plantation.
Because of their big membership and a focus to be big producers and exporters of the crop, the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) hired Buiga farm industries for advisory training.
“We were taught basics like planting, pollinating, harvesting and processing vanilla,†says Semusunge.
Soon, each member got a saucepan to boil vanilla, a thermometre to measure the boiling point and water levels, 10 blankets to cover the crop during curing and trial boxes for storage.
Each of the 17 group members contributed between 100kg to 800kg of vanilla as start-up requirement for membership.
Semusunge harvested 4,000kg. This dropped to 600kgs upon processing. In 2006, Bitutwa sold 700kg of processed vanilla to Buiga, followed by another 1,200kg in 2008. A kilo cost sh40,000.
“We earned more than sh40m that year,†he says. “I got over sh24m.†Because of the blossoming trade, the group hired 30 workers.
The group has harvested 1,000kg to date, hoping to sell in March. Processing vanilla lasts three months. About 6,000kg was bought from area residents.
The cured vanilla is sold to local buyers like Aga Ssekalala and John Nviri, at sh40,000 a kilogramme. “We hope to sell about 1,900kg in March,†Semusunge says.
Bitutwa has acquired a license from the Uganda Exports Promotions Board to start exporting vanilla to international markets.
For starters, the group wants to amass 3,000kg of processed vanilla before hitting foreign markets.
“But we are still learning how present exporters go about it,†he says. Semusunge harvests 800kg a year. This is little because of the menace cased by thieves who storm the plantations at night and steal maturing crops.
“Even the workers pocket the dried vanilla fingers,†he says. “But I search each of them before they leave.â€
He earned about sh20m from his ventures, but the coffee wilt has posed a sticky patch, ravaging eight acres of coffee in his orchard.
“NAADS gave me some acarisides, but it has not solved the problem,†he says. “But, when the stems dry, we cut them down to avoid multiplying.†Semusunge, who started farming with three acres, now boasts of 20 acres intercropped with vanilla and coffee. He harvests 100bags of 70kgs each year.
“If it was not for the coffee wilt, I would be harvesting 400 bags a year,†he says. With the price of unprocessed coffee fixed at sh1,800, Semusunge earns sh10m.
Processed coffee goes for sh3,000 a kilogramme. He says today’s farmer earns more than in the past. “I can surf the internet and get buyers directly, unlike in the past when it was only through middlemen that one could sell their products.â€
Semusunge’s biggest challenge has been one of unreliable market. “Some times we go six months without selling,†he says. “Yet I have to pay my workers promptly.â€
Because of this hitch, he has since slashed the number of his employees to 14. Semusunge was a store keeper at Electra (U) Ltd, an Italian firm in 1959. He quit his job after two years. Since then, he has been a farmer. “I left because I felt farming was profitable, compared to a white collar job,†he says.
“Even now, I am better than many office job holders. I do not regret my resignation.†Semusunge earns sh18m a year. He has built two houses, bought a car and 200 acres of land in Kyampisi. Semusunge wants to plant maize and matooke. “I have five cows and five goats,†he says.
FACT FILE