Fruit farmer finds fortune in jackfruits

Mohammed Were with a heap of jackfruits at his farm in Kayunga. PHOTO BY Fred Muzaale

What you need to know:

  • Mohammed Were started drying jackfruits in 2012 and since then he has been making profits from his fruit farm in Kayunga, writes FRED MUZAALE

Until recently, jackfruit was perceived as a valueless fruit. In most cases, especially during their ripening season, that comes between the months of October and January, the fruits are either thrown away or sold at a giveaway price to traders and consumers.
However, Mohammed Were, a resident of Kisega Vllage in Kangulumira Sub-county, Kayunga District has found gold in drying the fruit.

How he started
Were says he started drying jackfruit in 2012 after getting information that there was a company in Jinja called Fruits of the Nile that buys them.
Were had planted jackfruit trees in his garden from which he harvested the fruits that he sold to traders from Kampala. They paid him a paltry Shs500 per fruit.
“I was being cheated by the traders, who sold the fruits at twice the price I sold to them,” Were says, adding, “I went to a friend who was involved in drying pineapples to get some tips on how I could start the venture using jackfruits.”
Were invested Shs400,000 in buying materials for making solar driers such as polythene bags, trays, timber. It also catered for labour.
He harvested 25 ripe jackfruits from his garden, from which he scooped the yellowish fleshy pod.
From the 20 fruits, he got 15 kilogrammes of dry pod which he sold at Shs7,000 per kilogramme and got Shs105,000 instead of the about Shs15,000 he would have earned from the same fruit.
From 2012, Were has since increased his solar driers to 30. He also dries pineapples.
Because of the increasing demand for dried jackfruit, Were now buys from other farmers in the district.
He buys a small fruit at Shs500 and a big one at Shs1,000. However, during scarcity he buys a big one at Shs2,000.
Every week he sells 250 kilogrammes of the dry pod at Shs10,000 per kilogramme. He sells them to Fruits of the Nile and other traders.
For instance, Were says, when he buys jackfruits for Shs30,000 he earns Shs100,000 after adding value.

Drying process
Were says mature or ripe jackfruits should be harvested and stored in a clean and dry store.
He says it is however, good to harvest mature but not ripe fruits because if they all ripen at the same time, he cannot dry all of them at once.
However, he says if one has the capacity to dry and sell all the jackfruits, it is better to harvest ripe fruits as they make high quality produce.
“Big fruits are preferred because they have big fleshy pods,” he says.
Besides, high levels of proper sanitation should be observed as the buyers, mostly from Europe, buy only high quality produce.
This means a lot of clean water is needed in the entire process of handling the produce.

Challenges
Though he has been able to turn the jackfruit value addition to his advantage, the situation remains dire among others farmers.
“We are not doing well. It would be good if we could also get assistance. We want the agriculture ministry officials to come to our village and train farmers and share knowledge,” he said. “The ministry should give assistance such as fertilisers and loans, and then our lives would improve.”
He believes government can do more by supporting a catalogue of farmers and boost production of the processed jackfruit pod.
“Our country does not have much technology or good markets, so the farmers face problems. It is not easy for us to survive,” he said.
Secondly, struggles to maintain his solar driers. This is because the polythene bags and timber get worn out quickly due to high temperatures.
“Every two months, I refurbish the driers and spend about Shs1m on the repairs,” Were says.
The increasing prices of jackfruits are also another challenge as he has to spend more on buying fruits.
Were also spends a lot on buying clean water which he uses in the entire process of adding value to the produce.

Achievements
Were, has expanded his farmland with proceeds from the venture. He says he has used this land to plant fruits such as pineapples, sweet bananas and jackfruits.
“Officials from gender ministry are currently building a modern solar drier in my farm which will benefit other farmers,” notes Were. The solar drier he says, will have thermometers to measure temperatures, which would increase on the quality of his produce. Were has been able to pay his children’s school fees using earnings from the farm.

Future plans
Were says in future, he plans to start exporting his produce directly to the European and Asian market. This, he says will enable him eliminate the middleman and increase his earnings.

STEPS FOR DRYING
The ripe or near -ripening fruits are harvested and stored in a store.
They are washed and then flesh pod removed and sliced into pieces.
They are then placed on trays of solar driers.
The fruits are dry after two days are removed and packaged in polythene bags and sold.