chiaroscuro wrote:These guys are based in Ruiru
They have been running adverts on Kikuyu TV stations
They have two programmes - bananas and chicken
BANANA
You have 1 acre land with reliable water source
They sell you 480 seedlings @ sh380 each = Sh182,400
They come to your shamba, dig the holes, apply manure & fertilizer and plant the seedlings
In 3 months, the come back and apply more manure + fertilizer
In 3 more months the repeat above
In 3 other months they put final manure & fertilizer
During this 9-month period, your job is to till the weeds and water the bananas during dry spells - each plant needs 20L water per week
From 12th month, you start harvesting the early fruits.
They claim if properly cared for, you will get approx 100kg to 150kg bananas
They buy the bananas from you at Sh39 per kg.
You harvest first fruits weekly for about 3 months
Expect a minimum total of 480 x 100kg = 48,000kg
Total return is therefore = 48,000kg x sh39 = sh1,872,000!
Is this too good to be true?
Anyone in the banana market: tell us, if these numbers are reasonably exaggerated! Or are they OUTRAGEOUSLY exaggerated?
What would be the expected plant loss rate?
I once planted Eucalyptus trees and lost about 30% in one year. Forestry dept were shocked at how WELL my tree had survived - apparently average loss is around 50%!
So; who knows about bananas?
I think they are too ambitious, below are their two biggest assumptions
1.Each banana seedling will have 5 banana trees
2.Each banana tree will yield 25kgs of bananas meaning aprox 27-30kgs of banana brunch.
A)They should revise the banana seedlings tree yield to 1-2 in the first year, 2-3 trees in the second year and 3-5 trees in the third year.
B) Banana yield per tree should be 15kgs-20kgs per brunch.
In the first year, assuming no seedling dies you should work with no more than 450K gross sales with their pricing
If Obiero did it, Who Am I?