A smallscale drying enterprise

A smallscale drying enterprise Cue: Starting up any business is hard work. But if you are sure of your market, then you can be successful. In this next interview, Lazarus Laiser spoke to one woman who has done her research ? and it shows. With other women in her village, Rose Machange set up Umangu Enterprises in Tanzania, to sell dried vegetables to local businesses. Its success has been inspiring, and now the group is thinking of expanding the business. But first they had to find credit and, as Rose explains, they needed to form a group and invest some money of their own in the enterprise. IN: ?The chairman of our village? OUT: ?help dry a bigger amount.? DUR?N: 4?41? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: That was Lazarus Laiser speaking to Rose Machange of Umangu Enterprises in Tanzania. Small businesses can become bigger. But knowing your market ? your customers and your buyers ? is the first step. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA. Transcript Machange The chairman of our village one day called a village meeting and said there is no women group in our village. So we called our friends and we agreed to start such a group. Laiser Where did you get the finances because always it is difficult to get the finances? Machange After setting our goals we talked and discussed how to start and then we decided to contribute the money in a business of selling the clothes for women house-to-house, and we got a profit and started a small garden and our profit grew. Laiser Did you get any benefits? Machange Yes we got, it is still going on and we are still going on with it, it is growing. We got a lot of benefits and we were able to build good houses; that is modern houses. This is our office we built from the profits we got and we are able to pay our school fees for all our children. Laiser I am still standing outside the Umangu Enterprises office with the chairperson Mrs Rose, and I am interested to know more about this process of drying vegetables and fruits that you say that you are dealing with here in the office and I can see some dried things here on the table, Rose. Machange As you can see, these are the vegetables taken from the gardens and we have already dried them. Laiser The vegetables are already dried and it has its greenish colour and looks like maybe somehow hard but this is ready just to eat? Machange Yes you can even taste. Laiser Is it sweet? Machange Yes it is very sweet. Laiser If I taste? Machange Yes, it is very nice. Laiser Um, ok it is very sweet yes, it is very sweet and you added salt in? Machange Yes, as you can see, as you have already tasted what we do is we use a simple method of drying them to allow the duration of storage so that it will take long. Laiser Which type of greens are you dealing with? Machange We as Umangu Enterprise we dry all the greens found in our area. We have that knowledge on how to dry them but we have two types of green which are the soft and hard. Laiser Right, the green vegetables are varied into two types, they are hard and soft. Ok, how do you do now the drying process? Machange We bring the vegetables from the garden, we wash them, we wash them well in clean water, that is, and put on a clean place. We take a piece of a clean white cotton cloth and put on the greens and tighten it. After that we boil water and add salt on it. We then put the green tightened with the piece of cloth into hot water for about one minute if it?s so soft and two minutes if it?s too hard. Laiser Why do you add salt in this water? Machange We usually use salt because it helps to protect the greenish not to be lost because if it?s lost the vitamins are lost therefore we dry vegetables with greenish if you eat you get all the vitamins. After boiling for one or two minutes we put in a dry place - a bed - and it stays there for one day or some hours. It depends on how hot the sun is and it is not advisable to dry them too much because it will loose its vitamins. After drying them well, we put on the nylon pack and keep safe. We use them in our homes and also we sell them to other people. Laiser And you have people who are coming to buy? Machange Yes, very many. Laiser Now also the mangoes I can see also that bucket you say that you have some mangoes inside that are in the process also for drying. This is another fruit that you are dealing with here. You said also you are dealing with tomatoes. These are the mangoes, so?. Machange Yes, as you can see these are the mangoes from our own trees found in our farms. As you can see we have cut them into small pieces ready for drying. After the six weeks, we will add various spices to get a mango pickle ready to sell and for home use. Laiser Which is the starting point of drying? Machange We take the mango from the tree. Mind you they should be the mangoes which are ripe but did not drop down by themselves. We wash them and put on a dry place to drop water. After that we wash them with clean water and cut them into small pieces and weigh together with adding salt and put into bucket. Laiser Then after, how do you use these dried mangoes? Machange For our mango women group we sell them and get a good income. People usually come and buy from us. We can also use them by making mango pickles and we sell more money. Laiser Do you satisfy the market that is available? You said that you sell the product to other people. Machange No not at all. We have a big market and currently we did not manage to satisfy the market. We are only a few and we do not have many buckets to produce more but it is encouraging, the market is available. Laiser Which strategies now do you have to satisfy the market? Machange We are planning to sell and buy bigger buckets to help dry a bigger amount. End of trackHear from one smallscale enterprise that is learning the business fas