Success Stories - Eritrea

Women entrepreneurs creating new demand

“Firms should only produce goods and services after ensuring that there is demand for their product”. Is this statement always true? 

It is a common business practice to conduct marketing research to determine existing needs in the market. Once the needs are identified businesses start producing the goods to fulfill the market needs. However, the mushroom group which is organized under the Eritrean Women in Agribusiness Association (EWAA) is a business group that has created a demand for its product (mushroom) and started selling mushroom to the Eritrean market. 

In 2013, the EWAA in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture launched a training program to introduce mushroom production in Eritrea. Out of all the participants’ seven women entrepreneurs volunteered to commit themselves to introduce this new agricultural product to the Eritrean market. Accordingly, they decided to deepen their knowledge through training. Under the supervision of a Chinese professor of mushroom production and mushroom expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, in two months' time, they came up with the first harvest. 

Although mushroom which is a highly nutritious food and is common in the western world, it was not common in Eritrea. As the product was new to the Eritrean communities, creating awareness on the consumers on the benefits of mushroom was the first step taken by the group. After aggressive advertisement and demonstration programs, the group started to engage in the production and marketing of the product. 

The acceptance of mushroom as a food by the communities in Eritrea encouraged them to produce more and have stable demand. As a result, they rented a production house and started producing more. As part of the continuous support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture to the EWAA, bigger space and supporting equipment was provided to the mushroom group. The group is the sole producer and distributor of commercially produced mushroom in the country. Currently, the group produces 2-3 quintals (one quintal is equal to 100 kilograms) of oyster mushroom per month and selling it to the local market. As the group is operating in the central region, as part of its medium-term objective it has a plan to familiarize the product to the other regions.  In the long-term, the group also envisages to get some market in the COMESA member states, and here, the 50 Million African Women Speak platform is expected to come in handy to support the mushroom group to identify demand in the regional market. 

Challenges faced in the implementation process
The main challenge the mushroom group encountered was related to the Eritrean culture. In all communities people culturally are accustomed to eat certain types of food. Irrespective of their nutritional value if they are not accustomed to consume certain types of food then they will refrain from consuming them. Convincing communities to start consuming mushroom was one of the major challenges encountered by the group.

What does the future look like?
In the coming few months, the group is expected to engage in the theoretical and practical training of a different variety of mushroom that is, Sheitaki Mushroom which is one of the best types. With this new product, they plan to have bigger market and provide a better choice to their customers.