₦airaland Forum

Good morning my people story time

So I've always read a lot of stories in the agriculture section especially when it comes to people who have done the business and have not been able to make it. I never knew that heartbreak, na national breakfast, e go reach everybody.... E don finally reach me

So earlier this year I had some money lying around and as a student of Agriculture I decided that what more valuable investment could I venture into aside the agriculture wey dem dey teach me for school... So I thought back and forth and I discarded a lot of ideas. I didn't go into poultry because I didn't have the space. I didn't go into border livestock farming for that same issue as well. I didn't go into crop production because of the time investment it was going to take and I did not have the land available and also someone to guide me on how to do it profitably. So I sat down and thought and settled on smoked catfish.

Smoked catfish because i could easily be done with my production within a week. I could buy the fish, process the fish, smoke the fish and package the fish within just one week and it has long shelf life so I don't have to worry about my goods spoiling because I'm unable to sell. So with that spirit in mind I carried my money and ventured into smoked catfish.

I had over a million to invest but thank God for Fish Magnet of blessed memory..... I watched one of his videos and he said if you like have 100 million to put into catfish business first keep your 100 million in your pocket and start with 200 pieces. If you find it profitable you can put more money, if not you've learned and you can do better. So with that word in mind I decided to venture into catfish with that same level of cautiousness. I produced only 40 kg and after smoking it was about 11 kg... roughly 200 pieces of smoked catfish and so I started marketing.

I posted on my social media handles and I wasn't able to secure buyers except for a few friends that got after so much pestering and disturbing... just like that I was looking at my catfish and my catfish was looking at me. We were in a staring contest and the sales were moving so slowly. One part of my mind was thanking God that I did not put over a million Naira into this business, I would have started hitting my catfish by myself. But on the other side I was also praying for inspiration because I wanted to do this business genuinely and I wanted to grow it so I wanted it to expand and sales to grow. But since there was nothing I thought I could do at that time I was just watching till God sent a woman close by as an angel.

I put the fish in her shop then slowly people bought but it was not moving as fast as I wanted. It took more than 2 months to eventually sell off such a small number and I had to reduce my price because of low sales. So let's say I ended in break-even.

And that is my experience with smoked catfish business. So farmers in the house please teach me about this business. I want to learn. I want to do it the second time on a larger scale but I'm thinking if there are ways to get off-takers that you could just sell your whole production to immediately after smoking without having to sell retail one by one. Even if the profit margin is lesser it is a lot better.

So if you have any experience on smoked catfish business please drop them in this thread, make we learn.

FarmGuy101:
Good morning my people story time

So I've always read a lot of stories in the agriculture section especially when it comes to people who have done the business and have not been able to make it. I never knew that heartbreak, na national breakfast, e go reach everybody.... E don finally reach me

So earlier this year I had some money lying around and as a student of Agriculture I decided that what more valuable investment could I venture into aside the agriculture wey dem dey teach me for school... So I thought back and forth and I discarded a lot of ideas. I didn't go into poultry because I didn't have the space. I didn't go into border livestock farming for that same issue as well. I didn't go into crop production because of the time investment it was going to take and I did not have the land available and also someone to guide me on how to do it profitably. So I sat down and thought and settled on smoked catfish.

Smoked catfish because i could easily be done with my production within a week. I could buy the fish, process the fish, smoke the fish and package the fish within just one week and it has long shelf life so I don't have to worry about my goods spoiling because I'm unable to sell. So with that spirit in mind I carried my money and ventured into smoked catfish.

I had over a million to invest but thank God for Fish Magnet of blessed memory..... I watched one of his videos and he said if you like have 100 million to put into catfish business first keep your 100 million in your pocket and start with 200 pieces. If you find it profitable you can put more money, if not you've learned and you can do better. So with that word in mind I decided to venture into catfish with that same level of cautiousness. I produced only 40 kg and after smoking it was about 11 kg... roughly 200 pieces of smoked catfish and so I started marketing.

I posted on my social media handles and I wasn't able to secure buyers except for a few friends that got after so much pestering and disturbing... just like that I was looking at my catfish and my catfish was looking at me. We were in a staring contest and the sales were moving so slowly. One part of my mind was thanking God that I did not put over a million Naira into this business, I would have started hitting my catfish by myself. But on the other side I was also praying for inspiration because I wanted to do this business genuinely and I wanted to grow it so I wanted it to expand and sales to grow. But since there was nothing I thought I could do at that time I was just watching till God sent a woman close by as an angel.

I put the fish in her shop then slowly people bought but it was not moving as fast as I wanted. It took more than 2 months to eventually sell off such a small number and I had to reduce my price because of low sales. So let's say I ended in break-even.

And that is my experience with smoked catfish business. So farmers in the house please teach me about this business. I want to learn. I want to do it the second time on a larger scale but I'm thinking if there are ways to get off-takers that you could just sell your whole production to immediately after smoking without having to sell retail one by one. Even if the profit margin is lesser it is a lot better.

So if you have any experience on smoked catfish business please drop them in this thread, make we learn.

Wrong move start by trading the item then Manufacture .
Get outlet and start selling Fish first if profitable then go into production

It's good you looking for valuable investments to put your money...

You are on the way to solving a problem and being a creator of employment. Kudus for that initiative.

Don't give up. Dust yourself up and try again.

However I noticed some areas you might have gotten it wrong before you started.

You didn't do a proper and thorough market research on smoked fish business before starting, particularly in the area sales. It's not to have a product available but how to market that product to people or converting it to cash.

You didn't understand the competition, pricing and even demand before investing.

You should have also sought guidance, mentoring and networked with experienced smoked fish farmers around you who you could have learned from.


Going forward diversify your marketing strategy, don't rely on SM alone. Explore other areas to sale like bulk buyers which you already mentioned and selling to restaurants, caterers, local markets etc and also consider a partnership with partners who can sale for you for a small commission.

Just make your prices fair and competitive to attract customers.

I believe if you work on these areas sales would gradually improve for you.

It's good you even broke even...many businesses start at a loss.

Be encouraged... like I said just dust yourself up and learn from the mistakes you made then try again!

The psychology behind this is that if I had gone into trading first, I would have learnt to optimise my processes and properly understand the market of the business so when I go into the production, it would be an expansion of the already existing trading enterprise.

I get the logic, the problem would still have been my lack of proper market research and demand research before going into the business.

The question however is, are you of the opinion that a value addition and a production business would not work out if you do not first begin by trading it?

Educationalserv:
Wrong move start by trading the item then Manufacture .
Get outlet and start selling Fish first if profitable then go into production

You are completely right with this observation of yours. I smoked it at a close far to my place for a few and while discussing with the farmer and asking for marketing advice, he made it clear to me that it's quite difficult and he couldn't offer any guidance on that.

Rather than seeking out other farmers who were into the business and were experienced enough to offer me advice on that end, I went into the business just like that. I still haven't done the needed market research and the nature of the competition in the business.... These are the things I'll focus on learning before the next production.

I have to find a market for the product before producing it to avoid this experience a second time. I gats take time to understand the competitors as well..... Thanks for the advice Mrbrain 54

brain54:
It's good you looking for valuable investments to put your money...

You are on the way to solving a problem and being a creator of employment. Kudus for that initiative.

Don't give up. Dust yourself up and try again.

However I noticed some areas you might have gotten it wrong before you started.

You didn't do a proper and thorough market research on smoked fish business before starting, particularly in the area sales. It's not to have a product available but how to market that product to people or converting it to cash.

You didn't understand the competition, pricing and even demand before investing.

You should have also sought guidance, mentoring and networked with experienced smoked fish farmers around you who you could have learned from.


Going forward diversify your marketing strategy, don't rely on SM alone. Explore other areas to sale like bulk buyers which you already mentioned and selling to restaurants, caterers, local markets etc and also consider a partnership with partners who can sale for you for a small commission.

Just make your prices fair and competitive to attract customers.

I believe if you work on these areas sales would gradually improve for you.

It's good you even broke even...many businesses start at a loss.

Be encouraged... like I said just dust yourself up and learn from the mistakes you made then try again!

@brain54 has given you all the clues you need

Your hottest buyers are hotels and restaurants near you who will make daily orders. Talk to 3 to 5 hotels around you. Give them your contact and be ready to take it to them on demand even if it's just 5 piece per request. Next, find traders in the market who sell smoked fish, figure how much they buy and see how you can offer them a marginally lower price even if it is N20 lower. They will eventually start sourcing from you. If you have supermarkets that buy such fish, consider approaching them for order supply. Taking it to them personally will give you some edge if they already don't have someone coming to supply them personally

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