YAP Proposal #166: High-quality mangoes (Victor Ishengoma, Tanzania)

Introduction

My name is Victor Ishengoma. I am Director at Victor(y) Farms Ltd., which is an implementing organization for Empowerment Ministry through an NGO, “Re-hope-
Foundation.” I’m currently 36 years old and trained as a Marketer.

Motivation

We are motivated to do this project because of the need to inspire youths to get involved in agriculture instead of relying on formal employment which is no longer
enough compared to graduates from college and universities. Communities in the area will be trained in entrepreneurship.

Project scope

Victor(y) Farm Ltd. is launching a mango farm in Pwani region, Tanzania. The company has secured a 100-acre farm for a mango plantation in Dutumi village, Kibaha district in the Coastal Region.

Victor(y) Farm plans to facilitate a high-quality mango farm and install a processing factory in 5 years time. A processing plant, powered by solar and biomass/ biogas, will be constructed to convert the fruit into concentrate and purée that will then be sold within the country and exported, primarily to African, Western and Asian beverage and retail markets. Victor(y) Farm’s inclusive business model is to process fruits and source large volumes of fruit from a mixture of smallholder farmers and its own plantations.

The Company will work with local communities to graft better quality mango material to
trees with poor fruit, thereby increasing the yield and quality of the mangoes. They will
then guarantee purchase of all of the mangoes grown on these trees. In an area where less than 15% of the population has regular employment, the company will be generating over
1,000 jobs in farm work and at their processing plant.

It is estimated that the activities of the business will impact the livelihoods of up to 12,000 local households once it is fully operational. The commercial driver for the business is the strong growth in demand for mango in both global and regional markets. The business will capitalize on low production prices, excellent growing conditions and access to water from Ruvu River for irrigation purposes.

The decision to export pulp products mitigates the geographical and infrastructural
challenges faced by Tanzanian exporters because they do not have the rapid access to major transport hubs that fresh produce requires. A consultation for kickoff is in progress
supporting this ambitious startup in the areas of farm planning work including irrigation
design, setting up the mango farm to meet organic standards and planning the mango
outgrower scheme.

Our ambition is to become an example of how such a value-added business development opportunity can be created in Tanzania, potentially encouraging other industry players to copy our approach and generate further export opportunities with associated pro-poor impacts.

Blogpost and picture submitted by Victor Ishengoma (Pwani, Tanzania) – vmarijani[at]gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

This post is published as proposal #166 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

The first selection of the winners will be based on the number of comments, likes and views each proposal gets.

As a reader, you can support this speaker’s entry:

• Leave a comment (question, suggestion,..) on this project in the comment field at the bottom of this page
• Support the post by clicking the “Like” button below (only possible for those with a WordPress.com account)
• Spread this post via your social media channels, using the hashtag: #GCARD3

Have a look at the other “YAP” proposals too!
As a donor, support young agripreneurs and sponsor this unique project. Check out the side column for our current sponsors.
“YAP” is part of the #GCARD3 process, the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.