Agropreneurs: Kelly Kaduvira: ENG

Kelly Kaduvira: Founding a business with fungi

When mushroom farmer Kelly Kaduvira underwent the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) training program, he could not have foreseen how that knowledge would help him face the challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In April 2020, our business took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic and customers scaled back on buying mushrooms. We had started investing heavily in daily planting to respond to the market needs and we were then stuck with mushrooms which we couldn’t sell, “ says the 30-year old farmer in Western Kenya. “However, the GAME training I received on internet marketing helped me advertise my products on Facebook and through various WhatsApp groups. The response has encouraged me that I can still have my mushroom business here and be able to sell to other towns through partnerships with courier services and bus companies,” he explains.

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The CultiAF training program is implemented by Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Center at the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A).

Kelly highlights marketing, record keeping and entrepreneurship as the biggest takeaways from the training, explaining that he has seen these skills help him transform his business.

He is now able to monitor his business spending and profits through proper keeping of records and diversifying into different mushroom varieties to respond to various customers’ preferences. The training has also inspired his expansion plans, which include targeting highend restaurants in different counties and partnering with courier services as he seeks to reach more individual customers.

Kelly has been fascinated by mushrooms since high school, and now supports his family with his farming. The future looks bright, with burgeoning demand from a growing healthconscious customer base, including local research institutions and hospitals. To meet varied customer preferences, he has invested in Ganoderma lingzhi and mushroom oyster varieties, which he either sells fresh or dried. “We have noticed that a growing number of customers prefer dried mushrooms because, if kept in the right conditions, they have a shelf life of up to 12 weeks. More people have been contacting us to supply them so I have had to also outsource from other growers,” Kelly states.

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