Naluwayiro supervises a worker as he installs sliced pineapples in a solar drier.

WOMAN ACHIEVER 2010 Nominee

By Joel Ogwang

THE aroma of pineapples strikes me a kilometre away. As I alight from a commuter taxi, all I see are solar driers lined in rows. The heat is unbearable. Sliced pineapples are spread over green gauzy mesh, supported by wooden frames.

About 10 people are peeling and slicing pineapples almost as swiftly as they spread them on the mesh en route to the driers.

“Today, our work will be smooth if it doesn’t rain,” says one of the workers. Sweat runs down her face. She is the proprietor of the business.
“I thought you wouldn’t make it,” Jane Naluwayiro says as she leads me to her office. “I am the person you have been talking to on phone.”

Background
Founded in 1991, the project, located in Bukolooto parish, Kayunga, deals in value addition of fruits and vegetables.
“I conceived the idea of starting the project and sold it to my comrades,” says Naluwayiro. “They liked it and supported it.”

Six women started the project in 1997. They bought three acres of land on which the structures stand. “We saved sh2.5m from our earnings and bought the land.”
In partnership with the women in development project, under the gender and labour ministry, we made a breakthrough in the vast European market.

Success
The group was first called Tusitukirewamu women’s group, but as more members joined, it changed names to Patience Pays Foods.
A team of English agriculturalists toured the project to ascertain the feasibility of value addition to pineapples before they can be exported.

A research was conducted in partnership with the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and Kawanda Research Station.

Naluwayiro also dries bananas, pineapples, pawpaws and tomatoes. She contacted Adam Brut, the proprietor of Tropical Whole Foods, UK and started supplying him with dried pineapples.

After two days of drying, the pineapples are packed in 5kg packs. In the UK, they are repackaged in 500g-packs.
“From 2kg weekly, we export 250kg at sh8,000 per kilo,” she says. The group earns sh2m weekly. The proceeds are shared among members, depending on one’s contribution.

Some members, who double as farmers, earn more depending on the value of their pineapples. Each farmer’s produce is computed differently.

Students of food science and technology in higher institutions of learning usually visit the Kayunga-based project for research and fieldwork.
The group has since expanded to cover Kangulumira sub-county in Kayunga as well as Luweero and Bushenyi districts.

The exportation is done through Fruits of the Nile, a local firm with an export licence from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
In Bukolooto, membership has grown to 22, with 100 processors and 300 pineapples outgrowers.

Management of the project is such that each group member is accorded specific responsibility. “We don’t tolerate dictatorship,” Naluwayiro says.

Most projects in Uganda, more so agro-schemes, do not survive past their first birthday., but this one has.
Scovia Nalule, a group member, says the group has trekked a wobbly path since 1991 and has managed to survive due to a frugal leadership. “No member of the group has left. However, death has robbed us of some.”

The group has managed to hook up deals with MTN and Enterprise Uganda, which have provided them internet services and capacity building on business skills and loss management, respectively.

Due to her entrepreneurial and leadership skills, Naluwayiro was voted a councillor to Kayunga town council.

Because of the devastating effect HIV/ AIDS has had on some members of the group, Naluwayiro spearheaded the formation of a charity group, The Community Awareness and Response on AIDS. The organisation reaches out to orphans and widows.

“We pay school fees for 250 orphans as well as provide them with scholastic material,” says Naluwayiro. The organisation traverses sub-counties, preaching the anti- HIV/AIDS gospel.

Challenges
Transporting pineapples from farmers’ backyards is costly. “We spend about sh100,000 on each trip which is on the higher side,” she says. “Sometimes we fail to collect enough supplies.”

The group is also faced with a challenge of regular maintenance of worn-out wooden solar driers that have been eaten by termites.
The cost of running community awareness on AIDS is also hindering the group’s progress. It has prompted them to seek government intervention.

Ambitions
“We want to buy electric driers which can operate even during the rainy season,” says Nalule.
The association plans to start a website, targeting the foreign market. They also want to buy a truck to ease the transportation of pineapples.

“We need a modern truck because the kind we hire affects the quality of pineapples,” says Naluwayiro.
The association also wants to get a certificate of export to enable it access the foreign market.

FACT FILE
Name: Jane Naluwayiro
Age: 41
Marital status: Married to Charles Naluwayiro. They have four children
Education: Kisoko Girls Primary School and St. Joseph’s Secondary School Nsambya. She dropped out in S.5
In 1997, she attained a certificate in food science and technology from MTAC, Nakawa

Do you know any woman who has made a difference in her community through innovation, value addition in medicine, research, science and technology? Send your nominations to features@newvision.co.ug, or write to the Features editor, The New Vision, P.O.Box 9815, Kampala