Trader cashes in on innovative fish sausages

By Judy Nguta (@JudyNguta)

Nairobi, Kenya: Would you eat fish sausages? They are not a familiar dish for many people, but Lovin Kobusingye is on a mission to change that.

To hear her talk about the potential in the processing and selling of fish sausages, you’d think she was born with the idea, but Ms Kobusingye happened upon it quite by chance.

She left Makerere University, Uganda, with a degree in secretarial studies in 2006, and like many new graduates, she hoped to find a job immediately — preferably in the banking sector.

Three long years later, she finally got hired. In 2009, she started her job at Walimi Fish Farmers Cooperative Society (Waficos) in Kampala as an administrator.

Kobusingye was in charge of communication and interacted directly with fish farmers. She was also tasked with finding a market for their produce.

Her job started well enough, but that was until the fish was ready for harvest. The cooperative’s members had a bountiful yield but there wasn’t a large enough market for it.

She was making little headway in her efforts to get more people to buy farmed fish, and her frustration was mounting as the disappointed farmers began to turn away from rearing fish.

Kobusingye felt the farmers’ pain and filled every waking moment with trying to find a solution to their dilemma.

Finally, in 2011, an idea hit her: fish sausages.

Making fish sausages meant she would buy the fish from the farmers, growing their market. At the same time, she would add value to the fish and give consumers more options.

The few people she shared the idea with referred her to the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI). The organisation was willing to listen to her plan, even though they had not dealt with it before.

Meat technology

According to Mr Mark Matsiko, the head of UIRI’s meat technology department, the institute researched on how to go about making the product and its viability, and decided to give it a try.

They also found out that making fish into sausages increased its shelf life.

“Since we didn’t have a special facility for processing the sausages, we opted to use the machines for making beef sausages. The pilot project was successful, but we were making very few sausages,” Mr Matsiko told Business Beat during an interview last month.

Kobusingye was present during each sausage processing experiment, and the cooperative gave her time off work when she needed it.

The pilot used up the entire Sh69,000 she had saved up for the project. After consulting UIRI, she settled on tilapia and catfish for her sausages as Waficos farmers could give her the fish on credit.

“Also, catfish sausages came out much better than those from Nile Perch,” she said.

She started out selling the sausages to her friends, workmates and informal food vendors.

While at work one day in 2012, she introduced her products to officials from SmartFish — a regional fisheries management organisation — who had visited the cooperative.  Kobusingye instantly got an invitation to attend the first SmartFish Trade Event in Lusaka, Zambia.

“I presented my fish sausages and the reception was positive. I got ideas on how to improve the labeling and packaging to make it more appealing, and also got business connections that have grown my business,” she said.

“I started getting calls from people in Eastern and Southern Africa who wanted to either buy my products or get more information about my venture.”

Today, Kobusingye also trains people interested in the venture without charging them, which she says is her way of thanking UIRI and SmartFish for giving her free consultancy services and access to equipment.

During the second SmartFish Trade Event held in January 23 and 24 in Entebbe, Uganda, Kobusingye said her production capacity has increased to 1,000 kilos of sausages a week, from 36 kilos during the pilot phase.

This brings in Sh698,000 (USh20 million).

Kobusingye recently acquired a special sausage-making machine that she hopes will help her increase weekly production, and has added fish samosas to her product list.

She sells her Hy-Life products to schools, hotels, supermarkets, hospitals, street vendors and retailers.

“Currently, I only sell my products in Uganda, but I am hoping to expand my market to other counties,” said Kobusingye.

The challenges

She has since left Waficos to concentrate on her business, Kati Farms, that currently has 38 employees.

Her biggest challenges include finding adequate packaging material, spices for the sausages and processing machines.

Chilling and transport infrastructure are also lacking, making it difficult to market the perishable products over long distances.

However, the fish is easily accessible as she gets a constant supply from about 1,000 small-scale fish farmers she met while at Waficos.

bizbeat@standardmedia.co.ke