Fund my tea farm

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am Peter Ngetich aged 33 years. I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and Olenguruone, Nakuru (my rural village) so I am familiar with the urban and rural life. My father and mother are both from the Kalenjin tribe specifically the Kipsigis sub-tribe. We as the Kipsigis community mostly reside on the central and south of the great rift valley i.e Nakuru County, Kericho County, Bomet County and a small portion of Narok County. Throughout my childhood and education life my father was a great inspiration to me because he overcame great challenges to be among the first in the country to graduate with a a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1972 and went on to make the first computer billing program for our electricity distributing company Kenya Power. He later changed his career to work for several banks in the IT department. The challenges he overcame to us seemed insurmountable because at the age of 12 years he was accustomed to living with his friends and my great grand mother just to be in close proximity to the primary school he attended . He always passed with straight A's all through primary and high school. He was quite slim from the old pictures he kept from his childhood. Food was scarce but that didn't deter his focus for education even when it was more or less free the very basic needs of food and clothing were a real challenge to him. My grand parents were poor and lived off subsistence farming so my dad was inspired by my grand uncle to pursue education who was among the first in the south of rift valley to be trained by missionaries to become a teacher he converted to Christianity in the 1930s. My dad later in life became successful supporting all his brothers and sisters to go to get education and us as well he purchased properties in Nairobi but he always insisted that the should never forget our culture.

I did my primary education in Nairobi and was privileged to get into one of the best high schools in the country Alliance High School. I had always purposed to do Computer Science following in the footsteps of my father but after finishing high school with good marks, my father convinced me to pursue finance which I did after getting admission to Catholic University of Eastern Africa. I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Finance option in 2004 and proceeded to work for a number of banks starting with Equity Bank then CfC Stanbic Bank and finally Bank of Africa Kenya. I am glad I listened to my Father since Finance is now something I am deeply passionate about because throughout my working life I was able to see how access to finance can transform people’s lives.

One of the many hardship that I overcame to achieve an important goal that stands out is when I doing my final exams to complete my high school. The final high school exam in our country is crucial because it determines whether or not one gets to go to University and to pick his/her course of choice. It really in a sense determines one’s career. I remember right in the middle of the exam period (usually lasts one month) I became sick with amoeba I had excruciating abdominal pains and I had to do three exams. I didn’t want to show any signs of sickness since missing any of the exams would mean that I should have to repeat a whole year of course work and take the entire exam again the following year. I just asked to painkillers and determined to focus on doing the remaining papers well. I remained steadfast for 10 days until I completed the papers and was satisfied with my performance in those exams. The lowest was a C+ for the commerce paper which was fair. All in all my grades allowed me to proceed to University to do a course I liked.

I came to start my small scale tea farming business soon after I got my first job. My Father and mother allowed me to plant some tea bushes on a portion of our rural home and he also helped in getting me an green tea leaves supply contract with two main tea factories near our rural home i.e Kiptagich Tea Factory and Olenguruone Tea Factory. I have been getting some monthly remittances from the tea farming from the two factories. Now I want to upscale the business to get more returns.

Tea farming is something unique to my culture and most of the Tea that is exported from our country comes from our community. Our favorite pass-time is to have a hot cup of tea with village neighbors in the cold months of July and August.

My Business

I have a tea farming business based at my rural village in Olenguruone Nakuru County. I have approximately 3,500 fully grown tea bushes which produce on average 400 Kilograms of green tea leaves monthly that are ready for processing into tea leaves. I am a supplier of green tea leaves to two tea factories near my rural home i.e Olenguruone Tea Factory and Kiptagich tea factory.

The drinking of tea has become an entrenched habit not just in our country but in many parts of the world. Kenya is one of the main producers and exporters of tea in the world. We come from a region of small scale tea farmers who produce the majority of the tea that is consumed locally and exported under the umbrella of Kenya Tea Development Agency which manages several tea factories in the country(Olenguruone Tea Factory being one of them). Kiptagich tea factory is privately owned but it also exports some of its products and sells some locally. The product is in demand because tea is what we are accustomed to for breakfast, mid-morning ‘tea break’ in the offices at work and the afternoon 4 o’clock ‘tea break’. In fact it is a common gesture of hospitality to serve a guest tea no matter what time it is. I choose this kind of business because it is part of my culture. I grew up working on my parent’s tea farm; plucking, weeding the tea bushes, applying fertilizer, delivering tea to the tea collection centre. The business has a long future since drinking tea is a habit that will never stop. Once a tea bush is fully grown it is like a real tree but just short it can last for several years.

Typical costs of the business are mostly the labor costs of plucking tea which amounts to US Dollars 40 monthly on average while the monthly revenue from the factories amounts to US Dollars 100 hence netting about US Dollars 60. I would like to improve the returns by hiring more tea pluckers per session to increase production and buying from other tea farmers who would want immediate cash once in a while rather than wait to the end of the month to get paid at the factory rate . Though it seems buying doesn’t pay off on the face of it, the catch is that the tea factories usually pay a yearly bonus in the month of November at a rate of US Dollars 0.40 to US Dollars 0.60 per Kilogram of green tea leaves supplied during the year. If I am able to maximize on the high production months from March to July when we have the long rains I would be able to have much better returns on the tea farm. The profits obtained would be used to reinvest in the tea farm to grow more bushes diversify into dairy farming , green house tomatoes and capsicum farming and chicken farming.

Loan Proposal

The funds will be used to hire more workers for plucking tea. Labor cost amounts to 60% of my costs. My tea farm is ready for plucking after 10 days once plucking has been done if there is some rainfall. I have two farm workers who assist with the plucking of tea and additional worker will boost the production up at least 40% to 65 % more. So the additional hiring will cost me US Dollars 30 for the coming month the balance of the loan will be sufficient to purchase a bag fertilizer which will cover on third of the farm the cost being US Dollars 25. I expect to get 65% more of my usual monthly return because of more production and part use of fertilizer.

Feedback

Loan Info

Lenders