How an engineer left career to pursue agribusiness

John Kundwanabake (37) is a believer in his passion and will do everything to that effect.

It was no wonder that he ditched a fairly well-paying computer engineering job to embark on agri-business.

He is a degree holder in information system and network engineering from St Joseph University in Tanzania.

After his graduation in 2011, he worked in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector for only two years.

Initially, he was hired as an ATM machine operator by a certain company based in Dar es Salaam but served for only six months.

Thereafter, he turned to ICT entrepreneurship, where he worked as a computer technician, providing various ICT services.

It was at this stage that he realised there were ample opportunities in entrepreneurship, specifically value addition to crops.

At that time he did not know which crops would meet his desire in agri-business.

“While I was involved in ICT business, there was a certain cashew processing company that I worked for in Mtwara,” he told The Citizen in an interview.

He added: “I became so curious about the crop. I realized it was the one to take me into my desired entrepreneurship in value addition to crops”.

It was precisely in 2013 he started selling cashews for the first time while he was continuing his stints in ICT entrepreneurship.

He noted that he was selling cashews as a way to increase income after finding that opportunity and continued to study the business related to the cashew nut crop.

More prospects in the cashew nut business beckoned from 2014 to 2016 and Mr Kundwanabake did not waste time. In 2016 initiated a group called Mivanga Cashewnuts to spearhead his exploits in the cash crop.

His passion for agribusiness saw him prioritizing the cashew nut business rather than ICT.

Information technology, however, remains his additional job that would support his agribusiness role.

Cashew opportunities

He is aware of how cashew nuts used to be among the leading export crops from Tanzania, especially before the 1980s.

Things started to change from that time but he says there is still an opportunity for the crop to regain its old, golden days.

This, Mr Kundwanabake says, is due to the fact that cashew nuts from Tanzania are “among the best in the world”.

He cited India as a leading market for the cashew nuts as they are among the bites consumed during marriages.

“And marriages that take place in India a year are more than 10 million,” he said during an interview.

Roughly, one kilogramme of cashews is needed to spice a single wedding, meaning a total of 10 million tonnes are needed yearly.

He says processing offers a big opportunity in the cashew industry in Tanzania.

Currently, according to him, Tanzania’s processed cashews are below 10 percent of all the cashews harvested and processed.

That is despite the fact that there were enough machines in the industry from those costing billions of shillings to those valued at only Sh300,000.

“We cannot meet the demand for the processed cashews market in the world. For example, in this country, the maximum capacity of all of our factories is to process 50,000 tons and we have never reached that level,” he said.

He added that last year we processed cashews below five percent of the 300,000 tonnes of cashews.

Mr Nkundwanabake is the current secretary of the Tanzania Association of Cashew Processors (TACP).

He said his company normally receives orders of 1,400 tons of cashews per year from different buyers.

He can meet the demand for those orders by only 30 percent because of the low capacity in processing the nuts.

“Cashew processing is an open opportunity depending on how one organizes him or herself,” he remarked.

He added; "You don’t have to start with a high level of processing, you can start with a low level of processing and increase later while observing quality,” he said. He cautioned, however, that quality in all the processes should be maintained for a better quality of the product.

He says that in all businesses related to cashews, the one with a high ‘risk’ is that of processing, explaining that there are others such as that of adding value to cashew pods.

He mentioned juice and wine as some of the products that can be made from cashew fruits.

Mr Nkundwanabake says that financial institutions are trying very hard to provide loans to entrepreneurs who are in the cashew business, especially in adding value to the crop.

He says that even now there are big cashew processing factories that are being expanded and others are under construction through local loans.

He says the Government is supposed to elevate the sub-sector and attract more investment in the entire cashew crop chain in order to increase its value, which will make the cashews sold at a price that attracts local and foreign buyers.

“It is important to have many investors in cashews and cashew pods so that the farmer should not rely on cashews only, if he earns money from other cashew products, he will sell the cashews at a friendly price to value adders for processing for foreign and local market,” says Mr Nkundwanabake.

He says any move by the Government to reduce the cost of cashew production from the farm to the factories will help raise the production of the crop, export sales and benefit the farmers of the crop which Tanzania intends to produce one million tons by 2030.

“The cashew crop has the ability to address the challenge of employment for many young people, just a small factory that can produce one container of shelled cashews requires at least 100 workers, because cashews are shelled one by one even if you use a machine,” says Mr Nkundwanabake.

He says since the Government aims to produce 700,000 tons by 2025 and harvest 60 percent of the cashews that will be produced, it is necessary to provide tax and non-tax incentives to investors in processing because the remaining time is only two years and now the capacity is below 10 percent.