If I had to start agribusiness all over again
I would slow down at the beginning and think very differently about how I enter the game. When I was starting out like many people, my mindset was simple produce more, improve quality, expand gradually and the market will eventually respond. It felt logical. After all, if you have a good product buyers should come, right?
But the reality on the ground teaches you in a much harder way.
I remember moments where we had good coffee clean, well-handled with real effort behind it but still found ourselves negotiating prices we knew didnโt reflect that work. Not because the coffee wasnโt good but because we were trying to fit it into a market we didnโt fully understand.
At that point, you realize something uncomfortable: the market doesnโt adjust to you, you adjust to the market often when itโs already too late.
Thatโs where many of us get it wrong. We invest in production first, then start looking for buyers later. And in that gap we lose power. You find yourself compromising on price, on terms sometimes even on relationships just to move your product. Itโs not a quality problem itโs a positioning problem.
Over time, I started seeing things differently. The market is not the final step in agribusiness itโs the foundation. It shapes everything before you even plant or source that first kilogram. It determines what quality actually means, what volumes are realistic, what consistency is required and most importantly what someone is willing to pay for again and again.
If I were starting again today, I would begin with the market and work backwards. I would spend more time understanding buyers, what they truly value beyond just โgood quality,โ how they make purchasing decisions and what gaps exist that I can realistically fill. Only then would I align production, sourcing and systems to meet that demand.
Because one thing becomes very clear with experience agribusiness is not just about growing or trading a product. Itโs about aligning that product with the right market at the right time and in the right way.
And if thereโs one lesson Iโve learned the hard way, itโs this: itโs better to grow into a market than to struggle to fit into one later.
So before you rush to plant, expand or invest more into production maybe pause and ask yourself one question:
Are you building for a marketโฆ or are you hoping one will find you?
For God and my country