Another Business Update

Kapenta Fishing

We wrapped up April’s fishing last Sunday with the coming of the full moon, docking our rigs in the harbor where they will remain until we resume on Tuesday.

Looking back, even though our catches were somewhat low this past month, there are a number of reasons to be pleased with how things went. We finally have systems in place to keep track of our catches, the payments for the catches and our expenses. This past month, every Kg of kapenta was accounted for, as was every kwacha that came in and went out. While this may not strike you as impressive, I assure you that, in the context of African business and the Siavonga kapenta industry, it is something to be proud of. We’ll try to make a habit of it.

Also, our team of fishermen are working well together and are putting forth a solid effort. As you may remember, only a few months ago we had an entirely different crew with which Namumu had a number of problems. With our new crew we have made some changes and have been trying to keep everybody happy and establish a good working atmosphere. It seems to be working.

This month, we’re preparing to send our rigs to a group of islands that are quite far away. Instead of coming to the nearby harbor to dock every morning they will remain out on the islands for the entire month. So, we’re having to stock up big time on fuel, spare parts and food for the fishermen before we send them on their way. The costs for the month will be a bit higher but we should be catching much, much more. We’ll be hiring a speed boat to bring back the catches every week or so and we’ll sell them here.

Carpentry and Welding

We changed the salary system up a bit for our carpentry and welding guys for this month. They’d always had a fixed monthly salary. Now they will have a basic salary and will be working on partial commissions. They’re good workers and were doing ok before, but I know that the incentives of the new system will boost production quite a bit.

Farming

Our gardens have come a long, long way.

My little Namumu minions have been working hard. They’ve been on break from school so they’ve had the time to work. We’ve been busy transplanting eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and rape all week. We’re already harvesting the first beans that we planted.

I’ve been told that whenever someone in the area has a solid garden growing people will come from the villages and buy vegetables directly from them, so I imagine we’ll be seeing customers coming very soon. I’m sure we’ll find some way to sell in the market in town as well.