Finding a butternut market

Markets are important because they help farmers sell and earn money from their butternuts. As a farmer, you must establish how you will sell your butternuts before you begin to plant or grow anything.

Four important things to consider when finding markets:

Product

This is what you decide to sell after studying the market, in this case your butternuts. In deciding to go for butternuts, think about the following:

• Which other farmers are producing butternuts?
• Is there a demand for your butternuts?
• Which butternut variety does the market want?
• What quality expectations are there in the market for your butternuts?
• What costs are associated with marketing your butternuts?
• What legal requirements need to be met? For instance, can you hawk butternuts without a permit?

It is important to: Plan production, establish the level of investment needed for the entire season, identify the inputs required and know the estimates of income you will get in order to be efficient and have a successful business.

Price

You need to figure out what price you are going to charge for your butternuts i.e. per crate and in small quantities.

• Will you charge the same price for everyone or based on market and buyers?
• What will you do if a competitor comes along?
• Does it cover your production costs and leave me a profit?
• Are you going to charge different prices for different crates?

Find out the quality expectations by the market to minimize produce rejection or price changes, as well as the costs associated with selling and delivering goods to market.

Remember, you can make more if you sell a lot at a lower price than if you sell a little at a high price.

Place

You need to plan on where you will sell your butternuts as well as how you will deliver them to your customers and the market.

There are 2 main marketing channels for farmers like yourself to sell your butternutes:

Informal Markets

These are the easiest forms of markets to access. They include farm gate and road side stalls, village markets, rural aggregation points and sale in urban areas. Wholesale and retail markets for instance ‘mama mbogas’, schools, small hotels and eateries.

Formal Markets

These are more structured and are suited for commercially oriented farmers to large commercial buyers on contracts.

Small scale farmers can link to a consistent source of income, market information and support services. Such markets include contract farming for export, aggregators, supermarkets, high end green grocers, hotels, processors etc.

Brokers, middlemen and aggregators do play a role in aggregating for formal markets. They tend to know what the market wants and are keen on quality.

Other forms of formal markets include government strategic reserves like National Cereal and Produce Board.

Formal markets demand that farmers comply with strict quality standards, regular volume requirements and fluctuating prices.

Promotion

If no one knows about your product, you can’t expect to sell anything.

You need to think about how you are going to tell people why they should buy your product or service.

One way of creating awareness about my product is using social media to advertise. It won’t cost you much or nothing at all.

Some farmers also rely on word of mouth. This is when people tell others about your product or service. This is a good way to promote because people trust the information they get from friends.

You can also talk to brokers and visit potential buyers you have identified.

Online services such as, Mkulima Young, Farm Soko and SokoPepe are good platforms to advertise your product.