Mworozi's juicy affair with gooseberries and tamarillo

HARVESTING MONEY

When he sees gooseberries, he sees a wonderful natural juice. When he looks at tree tomatoes, he sees another juice.

"Healthy fresh fruit juices are becoming the in-thing for many Ugandans who want to feed healthy," says Augusten Mworozi. Because of this, he was inspired to process not so common health juice from gooseberries and tree tomatoes (tamarillo).

He has five acres of tamarillo mixed with gooseberries in Kankirose-Kyaruhanfa, Kamwezi sub-county in Rukiga district and processes juice from his harvests using machinery from the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) at Kyambogo-Nakawa in Kampala.

Since this is his full time job, he registered it as a company called Kata Orchard General Supplier Ltd, from which he markets all his products.

Vision bearing

Mworozi has a diploma in hotel management and hospitality and has previously worked at Equatorial Hotel, Havana Hotel and Riheka Restaurant in Mbarara town, where he earned a monthly salary of sh50,000.

"At my grandfather's home where I grew up, we had a tree tomato but we would only eat and at times harvest some and exchange them for beans and other goods with people in Rwanda, but most of it would ripen and rot in the garden," he says.

Everything changed in 2008 when he was working at Riheka Restaurant. He picked some tree tomatoes and made tamarillo juice out of them. It was sweet and was instantly demanded for by customers, especially the corporate class. "I realized that tamarillo juice has market if one made it in large quantities."

Mworozi then started growing tree tomatoes when he set up a garden on his grandfather's land. After a fairly good first harvest, he started looking for market, targeting especially supermarkets and hotels.

"After some time, I got a contract with Shoprite, for which I have supplied to this day."

One of the challenges is the supplies going bad while on the shelves. But Mworozi has kept going.

Growing tree tomatoes

At his grandfathers' home, Mworozi started with 12 plants. Today, he has planted on five acres of land.

"I make my own seeds from the ripened fruits. After getting the seeds, I dry them from a shade because if dried under direct sunshine, they are damaged and won't germinate well. When making the nursery bed, you use hands to sprinkle very little soil on it, to avoid covering the seeds with a lot of soil, which would make it hard for them to germinate," he explains.

The seeds are planted in spaces of 6ft by 6ft in fertile soils and 8ft by 8ft in less fertile soils. They don't need more fertilizers and grow in all types of soils. But if you must apply fertilizers, you may use dung.

"I harvest from a tree for three to six years from the start. You need to irrigate the gardens, especially during the dry seasons. I use bottle irrigation system on my farm to ensure that I have continuous supply all year round. I can harvest five to eight kilogrammes from a tree a week and sell a kilogramme at sh5,000," says the farmer.

Diseases affecting tree tomatoes

Mworozi says that several diseases and pests attack tree tomatoes and therefore, a farmer must apply best agronomic practices to get the best out of the plant.

To begin with, seeds are eaten by worms. To deal with this, Mworozi burns the soil he uses for the nursery bed before planting.

"They are affected by wilts just like the tomatoes. There is also a certain worm that moves underground during the dry seasons in search of water and sucks water from the trees through the roots, which causes the trees to dry up.

 Caterpillars also eat the plant's leaves, so Mworozi carries out a daily checkup for all plants to ensure they don't have caterpillars on them.

Gooseberries

Mworozi explains that although gooseberries have many health benefits to humans, people don't consider them to be of value, which could explain the low demand for them.

"They are easy to grow since they thrive in every soil type. We have those grown in central Uganda that have a bitter taste and those from Kigezi region that are very sweet," he says.

They are planted in spaces of 5ft by 5ft but in very fertile areas, plant in spaces of 7ft by 7ft because they grow wide and bare a lot of fruits.

"The good thing with gooseberries is that they are no prone to many diseases. But they attract wild birds and snakes. For this, we plant tobacco around the farm to repel them," he says.

Value addition

Like many farmers in Uganda, Mworozi experienced challenges with storage, as much of his harvest would rot and go to waste since the demand was limited.

Then he remembered that while still working at the restaurant, he used to prepare juice. He therefore looked for ways to start processing juice on a large scale that would increase his income and keep the products longer on shelves.

Along the way, the door of opportunity opened and before him was the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), a business incubation institute that helps Ugandans with business ideas.

"I wanted to make juice from tree tomatoes and gooseberries that I was growing but I did not have machinery as it is very expensive. After applying to UIRI in 2017, I was included in the programme and trained but still I couldn't do much. I re-applied to be allowed to use the institution's machinery and I was allowed in 2018 till today," says Mworozi.

He has been processing juices from both fruits (tree tomatoes and gooseberries) since December 2018. He packs the product in 300ml and 500ml plastic bottles. 

"We can now process three times a month. Every round we make 1,000 litres of juice, depending on the market dynamics. This much can be extracted from 30,000kg of tree tomato fruits and for gooseberries, we use 7,500kg," he explains.

Mworozi says a kilogramme of tree tomato fresh fruits is sold at sh5,000. However, it can be used to process five to six 500ml juice bottles sold at sh3,000 each or 10 to 12 bottles of 300ml sold at sh2, 000 each. In the same way, a kilogramme of gooseberries is sold at sh10, 000 but can be used to produce four bottles of 500ml sold at sh3,000 each or eight bottles of 300ml sold at sh2,000 each. This increases earnings by around 40%.

He supplies his products to Mega Standard, Shoprite, Kenjoy supermarkets and all Total shops.

How to get to UIRI

Hadijah Meeme, the fruits and vegetable technology department manager at Uganda Industrial Research Institute, explains that Mworozi applied first to be trained into business management and later applied to be allowed to use the institute's machinery to process his fruits.

"UIRI is a government institute established as a business incubation centre to help Ugandans with business ideas realize them. The institute was established to provide solutions to post-harvest wastages and losses so as to improve farmers' incomes and create employment opportunities for Ugandans," she says.

They also aim at improving the shelf life of products.

To use the UIRI facilities, one applies to the executive director of the institute requesting first to be trained and later to use the machinery to add value on their products.

"After applying, the institute conducts a survey to ascertain whether your proposal is viable in terms of market demand, job creation and if you have enough material for processing in case you are allowed. For the case of Mworozi, we had to be sure he will have enough fruits once he starts the process," says Meeme.

After being cleared, you sign a memorandum of understanding with the institute, clearly stipulating the work-relationship conditions for both parties, including expectations and each other's obligations.

"However, applications in most cases take time to be replied and approved because applicants are many yet the facilities are limited yet we can't throw out the one who has already started since they already have people employed and demand for their product."

Therefore, those who apply must wait for the one who is already using the facilities to graduate and establish their own factories and move out. Then the institute can take on another person.

In addition to processing, the institute helps in business registration and certification of the products by Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to get the quality marks that enables one access market.

Family affair

Mworozi has dreams of making his business a family business that can last generations and for this, he is now moving with his nine-year-old daughter during holidays for exhibitions such that she can understand the gist of the business.

His wife, Jennifer Tukamushaba, managers all activities at the farm when he is managing the processing side at UIRI at Nakawa. "Everything moves on well since we have trust between us," he says.

Tukamushaba says that she accepted to work with her husband after realizing that it was a profitable business that could fetch money for the family. "I manage all activities at the farm such that he can concentrate on the processing," she says.

She ensures workers perform to expectations, ensure all activities are done in the right way, including irrigation, spraying, weeding and harvesting, and that they are loaded onto the bus that transports the fruits to Kampala where Mworozi picks them.

Record keeping

Mworozi says that to be sure of the progress of the company, they keep records of whatever transaction is made both at the farm and at the processing plant. "This helps us to know how each part is performing."

For proper financial management, Mworozi opened up a bank account for the company on which money from all income transactions is saved. "But much of my money is transacted on mobile phone since much of what I earn currently is ploughed back into the company for expansion and innovations," he says.

Challenges

His biggest challenge is the cost of machinery used in the processing since he is using UIRI machines for a given time and he has to establish his own factory, which he wishes to set up in the village where the farm is located.

Transport is also another challenge limiting Mworozi from maximizing his profits. "We spend so much on transporting the fruits from the gardens to Nakawa for processing given that the motor vehicle we had that helped in transporting the fruits from the garden broke down," he says.

The other challenge is lack of proper storage for his fruits post-harvest like a cold room or a refrigerated facility to enable him keep the fruits for more days after harvesting.

 Workers

Mworozi has 15 workers at the farm and the factory, who he pays a monthly salary in addition to food, housing and medical. At the farm, he has seven permanent workers, who earn a monthly salary of sh200,000 each and 30 casual employees paid sh7,000 per day.  At the factory, he has eight workers he pays a monthly salary of sh300, 000 each. Depending on the availability of work, he pays factory casual workers sh10, 000 a day.

"We also get a salary as directors, where I am paid shs600, 000 at the farm and shs60, 000 at the factory and my wife is paid sh500, 000 a month," he adds.

Community benefit and future plans

Mworozi says that since he wants plenty of fruits, he interested other community members to engage in farming of tree tomatoes and gooseberries. He currently has 200 out-growers. He is training them more with plans of setting up the factory here.

His biggest dream is to set up a big factory that processes juice from fruits to create more employment opportunities for Ugandans.

Mworozi also wants to start producing more products from gooseberries and tree tomatoes, such as wine and medicine.