Taking Onion Trading to Another Level

 

By Derrick Silimina

As the trading of onion becomes competitive on the local market, many marketeers are taking the agribusiness venture to another level

One such seasoned marketeer is Susan Kapambwe who operates from Kyawama market in Solwezi District of North-Western Province. 

At the age of 40, Kapambwe’s area of speciality is the buying and selling of mainly onions and tomatoes. 

“This onion business is very lucrative as it has high profits. I buy onions from Kapiri Mposhi and Nakonde, which I come to resell here in Solwezi. I started the onion business in 2010 with a minimal capital of K500, and I have since grown my capital base to K8,000 in terms of cash at hand,” Kapambwe affirms. 

Kapambwe explains that she procures one 50 kg bag of onion at K600, and upon selling the onion in smaller heaps at retail price, makes about K1,500 from one bag, making a profit of K900 per bag. At most, she procures about eight bags at the total cost of K4,800 and one bag takes about five days to sell. 

“To ensure my bags of onion sell quicker, I distribute some of them to fellow marketeers who sell on my behalf. Each marketeer then brings a K1,200 while retaining K300 sales commission. My profit per bag comes to about K600 when sold through agents.” 

She said the onion business has been of great help to her as she is currently building a house where she has already spent K10,000 on building materials. 

In 2020, Kapambwe decided to sharpen her business proficiency and enrolled for the business development training conducted by Fortune World Investment, courtesy of the Kansanshi Mining Plc. At the time, lessons were still being conducted physically but due to the Covid-19 outbreak, classroom based training was put on hold, and she has continued following lessons on radio. 

Kapambwe has so far followed ten lessons via radio training and affirmed that the training has given her capacity to deal in more than one product at once. 

“Prior to attending the training, I had poor financial management practices and my business remained stunted,” she stressed. 

Kapambwe says after having been equipped with the knowledge in Financial Management, it has made her a better manager, hence being able to grow her business to its current state. 

“I now plan to diversify my business to rearing village chickens that will lay eggs for hatching to increase the number of birds, while extra fertilized eggs would be sold at K150 per tray,” she said. 

Having felt the impact of the FWIL business training, Kapambwe hopes to enroll for a piggery rearing course in future. She anticipates diversifying into rearing pigs that will be supplied to supermarkets in the form of processed pork. 

“I intend to register my business and have asked the FWIL mentoring team for guidance because my initial capital in the piggery is K10,000 which I hope to raise in the next 6 months,” she said. 

Apart from running her own business, Kapambwe belongs to a 40 member cooperative which was recently registered. The group intends to venture into crop and poultry farming on a five hectares piece of land which she bought and offered. 

“Thank you KMP management for the knowledge they are providing through the business training, which has made my business grow,” Kapambwe affirmed.