On July 4^th Malawi Mangoes hosted a visit in Salima district for the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Hon. Professor Peter Mwanza. The company was keen to show off the progress that has been made with the banana and mango farm as well as the work underway with mango smallholder farmers and the building works for the processing plant.

MD Jonny Jacobs and Dr Wilson Gondwe, Director of Agriculture, lead the way to introduce the MM concept at the nursery at their Matumba Farm, 20km north of Salima. Dr Gondwe explained that Malawi Mangoes is not just about mangoes but also bananas and eventually other fruit for export processing, such as pineapples. The fruit need to be chosen that best fit local growing conditions. The principle value proposition, as explained by Jonny, is simple: MM can buy mangoes in Malawi for $30 per tonne and can sell the final processed product at $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the variety.

The seedlings in the nursery are currently mango plants; 35,000 are being grown to plant in the 20Ha plot that is in the process of being bulldozed in preparation. MM’s environmental consultant, Riikka Hokkanen is ensuring that good practices prevail to ensure MM meet their Rainforest Alliance objectives. A boundary of indigenous forest surrounds the plot, and for every hectare MM farm, Riikka is selecting 10-20 trees to save. These practices are not being implemented just to get ticks in boxes, Jonny explained that sustainable farming is at the heart of MM’s ethos, and although the yield per hectare may be reduced in the short term, protecting against deforestation and other degradation of the land would reap long term benefits in soil fertility and hence savings on fertilizer costs.

Next stop on our tour was the banana plantation, which is being planted in stages so that there will be a constant supply of fruit for the factory. MM are experimenting with the spacing of the plants which eventually will be watered by drip fed irrigation. Director of Irrigation, Devon Carr, explained that this method is much more efficient than other irrigation techniques and will run from solar powered pumps. The total projected yield of usable banana fruit from 60Ha is 3,000tonnes and will sell at around $700 per tonne.

The picture below shows soy beans intercropped with the smaller banana plants; the soy provides ground cover which reduces evaporation and soil erosion. Leguminous vegetables fix nitrogen in the soil and so decrease dependence on synthetic fertilizers. The additional crop can either be sold or, as is the case on MM’s farm, consumed by farm staff for daily meals and an improved diet.

Threats to the bananas include aphid infestations and “Bunchy Top” virus which stops plants from fruiting. The Principle Secretary, Agriculture, asked MM what they were doing to counter the Bunchy Top threat. The short answer is that there is no way to kill a virus. To date 1.4% of MM’s bananas have been affected. Clean plantstock and good management practices will reduce the chances of contamination.

MM will be making their farm a “demonstration” plot for other farmers to visit and learn from what they are doing. The company has engaged with other stakeholders in the district to form a task force to monitor bananas transported into and around the district as well as develop training and sensitization programmes to build awareness of the virus and mitigation measures. A plan is also being developed to provide access to affordable alternative fruit plants/saplings to farmers who actively remove infected banana tissue from their farms.

We then moved from the farm to visit two of the 1,300 mango outgrowers that Malawi Mangoes are already working with. It takes a brave farmer, like Mr Kasitomu above, to allow his 30 year old trees to be cut back for new stock to be grafted! Victor Mshani, pictured on the right, leads the grafting team and he is holding one of the tablets that MM have introduced to capture data, including photos of farmers and GPS locations of the plots.

We had a live demonstration of a cut back (when the chainsaw finally started!) and then lead grafter Sam Makhilinga showed how a new scion is grafted onto a tree, as below. The scion has to be quickly inserted into the v-shaped cut and then held in place with a polythene wrap. The new bud is then protected from the elements with a paper shade. The regrowth is rapid – the tree behind Victor was only grafted 4 months ago and already has stems several feet long. New fruit will be growing within 2-3 years.

The final stop on the tour was at the site for the MM processing factory where foundations have been already been laid and the plan is for the plant to be operational by early 2013. Malawi Mangoes MD, Craig Hardie, explained where the different parts of the factory would be located. Nothing will go to waste – the fruit material that is not used for the pulp will be used as fuel in the biogas generator for the plant. When asked about the market, Craig pointed out that although MM is a groundbreaking business for Malawi, and will be bringing significant benefits to Salima District in particular, in the bigger scheme of fruit processing, their business is a minnow in the world market. The volumes of product MM will be able to supply with their 3 production lines will only be enough to meet the demands of a single customer in the Sub Saharan Africa and is tiny compared to the rocketing demand from other continents, particularly Asia. There is plenty of room in the market for similar businesses and MM would be pleased to see others follow in their footsteps and starting similar ventures in Malawi.

The day was closed with a few words from local MPs and the Minister, pictured on the right, who fully endorsed the venture and particularly the company's inclusion of smallholder farmers. He commented that more projects like Malawi Mangoes, and more foreign direct investment, is required to drive Malawi’s economic growth.

A summary of the BIF farm planning project in support of Malawi Mangoes can be found here and updates will be added as the business moves towards full implementation.