Agriculture requires resilience. More so when you’re dealing with fruits and vegetables which have short shelf lives. Eat Green, a Kigali-based supplier of fresh, organic, affordable farm produce that is pesticide and chemical free; launched to help farmers take these short-spanned produce to consumers faster. Founder and CEO, Ornella Bisamaza, talks to AMAKA about making the switch from real estate manager to agri-entrepreneur.

Crises such as the pandemic have inadvertently provided fertile grounds for innovation all through human history. Which is why it may not seem out of place that Ornella Bisamaza chose to launch Eat Green in the thick of the global pandemic in 2020. As an essential food service provider, Eat Green’s presence in the Rwandan market at that moment in time presented an opportunity particularly for the business’ B2C (Business to Customer) revenue model. Bisamaza says this kept the business running during what was a very challenging time to launch. With a compelling vision to grow the business in and outside of Rwanda, Bisamaza is working conscientiously to contribute to an industry that accounts for nearly 70% of employment in the country. 

AMAKA: What were the problems and opportunities that led you to founding Eat Green?

Ornella Bisamaza: I believe that there are not enough of us that can get into the agriculture sector to serve the demand in the market sufficiently. And this applies not only in Rwanda but abroad too. There are multiple nations where there’s severe food insecurity and I just wanted to contribute to food security in my country. [Eat Green] is also [very much] about women empowerment. I wanted to help women not only get out of their comfort zones but also to apply themselves. This means that they are able to gain knowledge, apply their abilities, learn new and multiple skills while working with Eat Green, and we know that this can contribute to financial independence as well as reduction in gender-based abuse. I know a lot of those things result from the fact that women are dependent on their partners. It was also about being able to provide good quality fresh produce to my local market. There’s a lot of produce here but that doesn't necessarily mean they are fresh and organic. I find that our clients want to know where their produce is coming from, how it was sourced, all the stages of growing. They want to know what goes into the food that they eat. And of course, Eat Green is about elevating farmers. Farming is something that’s still considered for the “poor” which is not correct. In more developed countries, farmers are very established people. I want to be able to give farmers opportunities to achieve financial security for themselves and their families. 

When did you launch and what are your numbers like in terms of amount of produce delivered and/or revenue generated? 

We launched in October 2020 and I’ve worked with 10 farmers thus far. I try to get two farmers for one produce just in case one is lacking an option. I also have different farms for different things. We have about ten employees, eight of which are women. We have about 46 types of vegetables and 16 types of fruits that we supply and this is without counting the dry goods. I can say that in our first three months, we were able to generate $10,000 in sales.

How has Eat Green been funded so far?

I have not received any investment from [traditional investment] firms. I’ve only used personal savings and funds which my parents have provided, which I’m very grateful for. I’m yet to seek or raise funding but it is something we are exploring at present.  

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Is this your first foray into entrepreneurship and what came before Eat Green?

I come from a family that’s very business-oriented. My parents are entrepreneurs and I'm the first born, so I grew up around a lot of conversations on business. I started working for the family businesses when I was 15, and I wanted to know how the family businesses operated and what goes on behind the scenes. Before Eat Green, I was actually trying to found another business that is also women-related, where I was attempting to manufacture eco-friendly sanitary pads for women to tackle period poverty. I was also working a fulltime job as a real estate manager. When I decided to go full time with Eat Green, I noticed the numbers were picking up and it was a significant increase on a weekly basis. That’s when I decided to take the risk and go all in. Before that I had never really run any other business on my own. 

" I have a really young vibrant team that’s very knowledgeable, hardworking and sees the vision of Eat Green. "

Entrepreneurship is a process

What has been your experience as a first-time founder structuring the company you envisioned?

It has been a rollercoaster ride. We still have a lot of ups and downs. As a young entrepreneur with no previous knowledge about starting a business, I would say that I almost wing every single decision I take and strategy I implement. I’m very privileged to have mentors who I can go to for advice but I also taught myself a lot of things particularly when it comes to problem solving. It has been a very hard and demanding task. We look at entrepreneurs a lot but we don’t really [see] how much goes into the start-up process and maintaining the business. I give so much respect to business owners now, especially successful ones because I know that it takes a lot. It’s a 24/7 job [because] even when you’re not working, your mind is working trying to solve new and potential challenges. The toughest part about it, I'd say, was the foundation and I’m still building it because being able to get everyone on the same page about the vision you’re trying to achieve is a skill by itself.

Managing people has also been challenging. One thing I really struggled with was finding a solid number two, somebody who could take charge of the operations while I focus on growing the company. Because you find that when you start, you’re a multitasker. At some point I was doing the finances, the deliveries with my own car, the procurement, chasing clients down, marketing. You find yourself juggling so much and you can really burn out. Once I found a solid number two who understood how I wanted things to be done, which was really hard, a lot of weight was taken off my shoulders. I’ve also had a lot of help from mentors who have contributed to my growth and that has been truly helpful.

What do you look out for when hiring?

If there’s one thing I lack, it is creativity so I like to surround myself with people who are very creative just because that brings so much diversity to the team and to the company. I might have one big idea and where the company wants to go, but I feel like every single thing someone might contribute can either enhance the idea or get us there faster. When I’m hiring, I try to find creativity and passion. One of the favourite questions I like to ask when I’m interviewing is: where do you see yourself in five years, or where do you want to be in five years? The people I’ve chosen are mostly people who say they don’t want to be working for my company, they want something of themselves. That’s very ambitious to me. I focus on integrity, communication which is something you can teach. Integrity, ambition and creativity are three big things I focus on when I’m hiring. 

In addition to the role companies like Eat Green play, how can Africa reduce food losses resulting from choppy supply chains and faulty cold chain storage systems?

Organisations such as the World Bank or World Food Programme can help farmers implement cold chain routes, whether they are rented out or given as loans, so as to reduce food losses. We also need more middlemen and companies like Eat Green to come in as middlemen because we have more connections. I might not have a cold room under my name but I know someone who can rent me one so that I can help a farmer reduce losses overtime. We need more middlemen to come in, not just to focus on the farmers’ produce but to start farming so they can understand where the farmers are coming from and be capable of offering them what their time and investments are worth.

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Quality matters, build your reputation on it

Eat Green puts all its produce through rigorous quality checks before they are supplied to customers. In the event that there are some that do not pass the company’s standards, what becomes of such produce?

Different clients demand different grades or types of produce. We communicate these expectations with our farmers accordingly and this reduces the chances of any losses on their part. But when they do bring for example, overripe fruits or vegetables that’s no longer fresh, we have a common understanding that we cannot take it and it has to be returned. As a company, we would rather tell the clients that we do not have fresh produce than deliver poor quality produce and we’ve done that several times because this is a reputation that we will love to keep. 

Rwanda is one of a very few African countries where gender parity is significantly high. Do you think this is reality in the agriculture sector?

In the agriculture industry, it’s still very low, especially with young women. As previously noted, agriculture is still viewed as something that poor or low-class people do which is very untrue. If you think about it, nurturing and growing is one of our biggest assets as women and I encourage more women to get into the industry and contribute to its growth. 

As a first-time entrepreneur, and in particular, an agriperneur, what are you most proud of when you think about how far Eat Green has come in the past year?

The fact that a lot of people depend on Eat Green, not just the farmers we work with but our staff as well. I have a very hardworking team; I'd say I’m very happy to have the team that I have. I have a really young vibrant team that’s very knowledgeable, hardworking and sees the vision of Eat Green. That makes me happy. I really love it when I’m not there and I see that operations are running very smoothly because that tells me that we’ve moved from one stage to another. [That tells me that] we have been able to establish some kind of foundation in order for the business to keep running even when I’m not around. The vision that I have for Eat Green continuously pulls at me and it is something that I want to see happen. When I envision it, I see how huge it is and it gives me a thrill to get up and go.