Easter Kojwang
Interview with Easter Kojwang
CEO AND FOUNDER, EASTNAT FOODS
Lives in: Nairobi, Kenya
After graduating from Moi College in 2014 with a level in resort and hospitality administration, Easter Kojwang sought a task that would really fulfill her. Nonetheless, she discovered that even positions throughout the resort business fell in need of her expectations.
Her early profession included stints as a restaurant supervisor and later as a entrance workplace officer. But, neither job introduced the satisfaction she was on the lookout for. Disillusioned, Kojwang determined to stop in 2015. The implications have been quick. “After I stop my job, I used to be operating out of cash in Nairobi. After I had some few hundreds left like round Ksh.9,000 (about $70), I couldn’t stay in Nairobi anymore,” she reveals.
She then left Nairobi and returned to her rural village in Homa Bay County. Again within the village, her grandmother would ship her to the farm to reap peanuts. As a younger millennial, she took photographs of the harvest and shared them on Fb. The photographs rapidly caught the eye of her buddies, who inspired her to convey the peanuts again to Nairobi.
Recognising a enterprise alternative, she started including worth to the peanuts by roasting them and making peanut butter. She would then return to Nairobi to promote her merchandise, repeating this cycle commonly. Kojwang reinvested all earnings again into the enterprise.
Establishing Eastnat Meals
By 2016, her capital had grown, permitting her to determine Eastnat Meals. She expanded her product line by introducing infused honey and commenced sourcing uncooked honey in bulk, which she processed and packaged herself.
“Meals is our primary enterprise, with our anchor merchandise being honey,” says Kojwang. “We promote honey to different firms, underneath our contract manufacturing programme. We additionally provide honey to eating places and lodges. A lot of the eating places in Nairobi are utilizing Eastnat honey. We additionally promote honey to individuals who resell, and likewise to small merchants who promote on-line, in kiosks.” The corporate presently has 10 full-time staff.
To succeed in clients, Eastnat Meals has established a store in Nairobi, an outlet in Kitengela, and a pickup level in Kisumu. Moreover, the merchandise can be found on-line by its web site.
Past honey, the corporate has diversified right into a broad vary of wellness merchandise. These embody wholesome seeds like chia, pumpkin, and sesame seeds, together with sea moss, and numerous herbs equivalent to ashwagandha and mukombero, in addition to different plant-based merchandise like hibiscus and chamomile. The corporate additionally gives private care merchandise equivalent to shea butter, almond oil, and castor oil to be used on the pores and skin and hair.
Eastnat Meals sources honey from round 3,000 farmers throughout Kenya, processing over six tonnes every month to fulfill demand. Initially, Kojwang personally visited the farmers and helped with the honey harvest. She has since appointed somebody to handle the gathering course of.
Nonetheless, honey provide will not be all the time constant. Weather conditions can vastly have an effect on honey manufacturing. Extreme rain could cause flowers to fall, leaving bees with out nectar. Equally, throughout droughts, vegetation dry up, and there’s no water for the bees. For honey to be produced, the climate must be good. When honey is scarce in Kenya, the corporate turns to Uganda for provide.
Utilizing instruments like a refractometer, the corporate ensures the honey has the suitable moisture content material, as required by the Kenya Bureau of Requirements. Moreover, the corporate assesses the density, style, and color of the honey to fulfill shopper preferences.
Assembly market demand
Eastnat Meals packages its honey in numerous sizes to cater to totally different buyer wants. For giant-scale producers, it gives 25kg buckets, primarily offered to producers of food gadgets like desserts and biscuits, at about $173 per bucket, with reductions accessible for bulk purchases.
It additionally packages honey in 7kg containers that are common with eating places. These are priced at round $48, although lodges and eating places typically buy as much as two tonnes at a time, benefiting from a decrease bulk buy worth.
For households, it gives a 4kg possibility at round $28, usually with a store low cost. The 1kg container, priced at $7, is especially common amongst particular person customers for residence use. Moreover, there’s a 0.5kg possibility accessible at $4.
Eastnat Meals additionally caters to the hospitality sector with smaller packaging choices of 50g, 35g, and 20g, typically offered in bulk to lodges and eating places. Some institutions buy as much as 100,000 models of those smaller honey cups at wholesale costs.
Challenges within the honey enterprise
The entrepreneur notes that one of many largest challenges within the honey enterprise is the widespread false impression about crystallisation. Many individuals wrongly consider that if honey crystallises, it’s impure and has had sugar added. “It’s the largest problem. And the unhappy factor is that, even individuals who promote honey consider in that fallacy. One other factor is that honey is available in totally different colors and tastes, relying on the supply of nectar,” says the entrepreneur, including that many individuals consider that honey needs to be brown in color.
She additionally highlights the capital-intensive nature of the enterprise as a big problem. Moreover, the rising value of dwelling and the weakening Kenyan shilling have diminished clients’ shopping for energy.
Easter advises aspiring entrepreneurs to take a position time in completely understanding their chosen subject. Endurance can also be essential, as constructing a enterprise takes time. “You’ll not get up at some point and end up making tens of millions. It’s important to be disciplined – self-discipline is what is going to preserve you going. Additionally, be passionate, and proceed studying.”
Trying forward, she plans to increase by exporting her merchandise to Europe and the US, the place she believes the corporate can obtain larger profitability.