₦airaland Forum

Yashita:
So, people have always been asking. I have 200k/500k/1million what business can I do?

Here is an insight for you.

You can make dried fruits and bag them. Off season, you can brand package and resell.

I went an early morning farmers’ market to buy fresh, ripe and sweet agbalumo at wholesale price.

I took it to my place and employed 4 people to help me remove the flesh and I spread to dry on a wide sackspread for like 4 to 5 days. Then bag it.

See pictures

adamma24:
What can you do with dried agbalumo...sell it?? ...use to produce other things??...cos I am lost here

Yashita:
Mixed dried fruits and also grind to powder and make juice.

olushollys:
Weldone! More insight please especially on marketing and profitability.
Thanks and God bless you exponentially.

SocialJustice:
You have talked about production, what about marketing channels?

matify83:
Are you drying them to use as fruit concentrate?

Further elucidate on where these dried fruits can be deployed for business purposes!

Yashita:
They can be branded and packaged to dried fruit snacks.

They can also be blended to powder and made into packaged juices. Example, mango drink powder. I purchased 25kg from China for my business. If anyone was producing it in Nigeria, I wouldn't need to purchase from China.

matify83:
I see!

Will try it out and see if it comes out good.


Thanks for the information.

akata1:
Pls can you teach me

Yashita:
It's very simple.

1. Go to any early morning farmers' marketer near you. Reason: they are directly from the farmers and very cheap. You'd buy like the retailers do, to sell during the day.

2. For whatever fruit, make sure it's well-ripened and sweet while selecting.

3. Buy in bulk.

4. Take home and employ labourers to peel skin, remove seeds and slice smaller.

5. Spread in hot scorching sun on a sackspread to dry.

6. Keep bringing out daily to sundry till it's well dried, then bag.

7. When ready, brand, package and market very well.

8. Or turn into packaged juice by grinding to powder and mix with water/sugar. Brand, package and market too.

missjekyll:
Absolutely not. Hygiene? You are employing just any labourer and spreading just anyhow .

Yashita:
So, people have always been asking. I have 200k/500k/1million what business can I do?

Here is an insight for you.

You can make dried fruits and bag them. Off season, you can brand package and resell.

I went an early morning farmers’ market to buy fresh, ripe and sweet agbalumo at wholesale price.

I took it to my place and employed 4 people to help me remove the flesh and I spread to dry on a wide sackspread for like 4 to 5 days. Then bag it.

See pictures

Yashita:
I’d be doing the other fruits when I’m done with the second batch of Agbalumo.

I will need to do mangoes in very large quantity because not only do I want to sell as snacks, I also need mango powder stored up in like 20 bags (25/50kg) till the next mango season.

Yashita:
If you can do dried mango powder, I just might be buying from you.

Yashita:
Dried fruits are way expensive than fresh fruits when packaged and especially when they are off season.

You can sell at 300% of your cost price and it can be marketed digitally and directly like every other snacks or item.

Yashita:
They can be branded and packaged to dried fruit snacks.

They can also be blended to powder and made into packaged juices. Example, mango drink powder. I purchased 25kg from China for my business. If anyone was producing it in Nigeria, I wouldn't need to purchase from China.

Yashita:
It's very simple.

1. Go to any early morning farmers' marketer near you. Reason: they are directly from the farmers and very cheap. You'd buy like the retailers do, to sell during the day.

2. For whatever fruit, make sure it's well-ripened and sweet while selecting.

3. Buy in bulk.

4. Take home and employ labourers to peel skin, remove seeds and slice smaller.

5. Spread in hot scorching sun on a sackspread to dry.

6. Keep bringing out daily to sundry till it's well dried, then bag.

7. When ready, brand, package and market very well.

8. Or turn into packaged juice by grinding to powder and mix with water/sugar. Brand, package and market too.

Konquest:
@Yashita,

I must commend you for the value addition you're trying to do here as a female entrepreneur and also preventing post-harvest losses in the agribusiness chain.

However, as of February 2024, the method you used or stated here indicates that you sun-dried the agbalumo fruits on sacks for 4 days. This method of sun-drying RAPIDLY destroys the "beneficial nutrients" in all fruits that are dried out in the sun aside from creating some potential microbial growth.

Any strict regulatory agency such as the United States FDA or the Nigerian NAFDAC would NOT readily certify this method for human consumption after undergoing rigorous site inspections and lab tests since this is food processing.

However, I'm happy to let you know that there are other methods that can be used to achieve this objective of preserving foods against post-harvest losses although it costs more and requires constant electricity supply. If you can get any business incubation center or shared facility in your city of residence, that would be an added advantage. When I get your feedback to my posts here, then I'll know when to give you more info and contacts.


Last but not least, you'll find the videos below insightful. In Indian, unripe dry mango powder is used as a spice called AMCHUR powder. The video on how it is made using sun-drying is in the second video right BELOW.


NAFDAC # Without a Factory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olvp8ayug30?si=AGl8GcFpS1isPpoO


HOW TO MAKE DRY MANGO POWDER l AMCHUR POWDER l HOME MADE DRY MANGO POWDER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScMOYEHdWI?si=iPeKvYKTBlGLVprP
Rasavinsuvai • Mar 23 2018

Indian foods are flavoured with many spices which gives unique taste and flavour to the food. The dry mango powder is sour in taste and added for tanginess in food. You can use it instead of tamarind, lime because of the sour taste.

Usually, the dry mango powder is prepared with raw mangoes which should be white in colour inside the mango. However, I brought the mango and the colour was yellow inside still I made it because it was very very sour.

Konquest:
@Yashita,

How much did it cost you to purchase and ship in the 25kg of this mango powder from China?

Yashita:
It was quite costly per kg, even without shipping fees. ¥96 rmb per kg

Konquest:
Right... NGN232×¥96/kg = N22,272/kg (sans shipping cost).

That's using about NGN231(or approx. NGN232) to ¥1 as of today.
=>https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/

Yashita:
Thank you Kon.quest. I even bought a food dehydrator but the dryer wasn’t so effective. I’m not drying anything at the moment 😊 and I’m not going into that line of business for the time being because I own a café now.

However, I'm happy to let you know that there are other methods that can be used to achieve this objective of preserving foods against post-harvest losses although it costs more and requires constant electricity supply. If you can get any business incubation center or shared facility in your city of residence, that would be an added advantage. When I get your feedback to my posts here, then I'll know when to give you more info and contacts.
I’d still consider this part when I want to go into producing noodles but that’s after I've grown my café and run its franchise to some extent. Thank you so so much 🙏 I appreciate your contribution.

Konquest:
@Yashita... How's it going?

"My pleasure." Indeed, I like your feedbacks here as well as your ability to re-create yourself.

I wanted to post this response to you earlier right after the first post I made to you today but had to take some time off to attend to an abrupt situation.

Aha! So, you own a café now... I assume it's based in Lagos and I hope that things are going on smoothly with your ROI based on your business projections. It's always best to do "proper costing" for any in-demand products one wants to make instead of FIRST rushing to purchase production equipment and office furniture, etc. It's wise that you suspended that other project in order to take stock and find ways to increase your ROI (by minimizing the cost of energy and production). Since you're using the café franchise business model, you have to ensure that franchise outlets are NOT overextended eventually. I studied the franchise business model years back for the fast food outlets and other models based in the United States and one of the things that led to their eventual failures was that they were "overextended" meaning there was too much competition for the same customers within a small geographical location and market.

I wonder if the food dehydrator you got is from China as well? China is known for making and selling both original and mediocre products, so, it's very important to analyze text and video-based product reviews online when you are planning to order for manufactured products from China.

Last but NOT least, I read an older post of yours where you said you intended to move your business to Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire. Coincidentally, I visited Abidjan for the FIRST time ever in 1988 by air. We landed first at the Kotoka Airport in Accra before taking off again and landed at the Felix Houphoet Boigny Airport in the beautiful and well-planned commercial city of Abidjan. I was there for an international conference and stayed at the impressive "Hotel Ivoire" in the Cocody area of Abidjan. The year before (1987) the iconic American pop star Michael Jackson had also stayed at "Hotel Ivoire" when he FIRST came to Africa on a music concert. I flew out with a culture shock and fond memories of Cote d'Ivoire from just that first trip. It spurred a desire in me to want to learn French, although some Ivorians are multilingual and speak English but a vast number do not.

Cote d'Ivoire has been an incredibly peaceful and prosperous country until they had 2 Civil Wars from September 19, 2002 to March 4, 2007 (5 years) and from November 28, 2010 to April 11, 2011 (5 months). This has also led to an increase in crime rates such as the Grand Bassam Al-Qaeda terrorists attack in March 2016 in which 19 expats and tourists were killed (including a Nigerian citizen). The increase in armed robberies, highway robberies and kidnappings in the Bounkani region of Northern Cote d'Ivoire can be traced to the increasing presence of violent extremists as well.

Common violent crimes include carjackings, robberies, home invasions, assaults, burglaries, and street hold-ups. These crimes are especially prevalent in big cities such as Abidjan, and they often occur at night.


So, I would keep some of these specifics in mind when I'm going to go next by air to Abidjan for any leisure or business travel.


Take out time from your schedule to watch the videos I have attached right BELOW:


Enjoy the rest of your day.

Ciao.


The truth about living in Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol8EVp7BFwk?si=K17AuwED5rMYHrLN
Lifey • Jun 1 2020
#Abidjan #IvoryCoast #CotedIvoire