Sell first, produce later

The following article is a slightly edited excerpt from our new book, How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit. The publication was recently launched at Harvard Business School. The ebook and paperback versions are available here.

When Tanzanian agribusiness entrepreneur Hadija Jabiri launched her enterprise, she adopted a strict market-first approach. Instead of planting crops and hoping to find buyers later, she wanted to ensure she had a guaranteed market before starting production.

As she notes, “The mindset was always: get the order before you plant.”

Her specific goal was to supply corporate customers – rather than the informal shops that dominate Tanzania’s retail sector – believing they would offer better prices and more reliable demand.

To achieve this, she travelled to Dar es Salaam to pitch her planned harvest to major food retailers, including the now-defunct Kenyan chain Nakumatt and the South African grocer Food Lover’s Market.

Convincing potential clients to buy from a company that hadn’t produced a single crop was no easy task. “I remember they asked me: Is it a registered company? Do you have your tax clearance certificates? Do you have a business licence?” Jabiri recounts.

To win them over, she promised not only to deliver quality produce but also to provide the necessary documents within three months. “You won’t regret buying from us,” she told them. “And they kind of trusted us. And I think we kept the promises that we made to them,” she notes.

Nakumatt became the company’s first client.

With orders in hand, Jabiri was ready to get to work. The company, named GBRI, started out with tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers and onions.

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