Enterprise
Accountant works out supply chain to build thriving venture
Thursday July 06 2023
Angela Odero (left), the founder and CEO of Rio Fish, and her workers prepare to catch fish from a cage in a farm in Homa Bay. FILE PHOTO | POOL
While living in Kampala, Uganda, in 2014, Angela Odero noted that, unlike Kenya, the country has an adequate fish supply and wanted to know why that was the case.
“I took a keen interest in cage fish farming, visited a few farms to see how it’s done, and didn’t see why we can’t have enough fish for ourselves as well,” says Ms Odero, the founder and CEO of Rio Fish, a fish farming and processing company in Homa Bay County.
Her second encounter with aquaculture was when she was typing her mother’s MSc thesis titled The Impact of Sex-for-Fish on the Spread of HIV in the Lake Victoria Region.
Business Opportunity
Sex-for-fish is a practice mainly fuelled by the scarcity of fish. Ms Odero found the practice infuriating and saw an opportunity to contribute to solving the societal problem by going into business.
She decided to sell her stake in an architectural photocopying business she had been successfully running with her partners for seven years.
She planned to set up a cage fish farming venture in Gwassi, Homa Bay, but mobilising the resources needed was quite daunting.
“We heard from the county fisheries officers that a German investor had done some research on cage fish farming but was frustrated by bureaucracy. We reached out to him, but he declined our request for technical assistance,” recalls Ms Odero.
She wasn’t deterred. She prodded on, and finally, the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (Kemfri) helped her secure all the documentation and approvals to set up the fish cages in 2018.
“We started off with metallic cages, but production was low due to poor quality feeds,” she explains.
Mobilising funds
Her husband working as an expatriate in Uganda meant that most of their bills were being catered for by his employer, so instead of living large, they decided to save most of their earnings, and together with bank loans, they invested over US$300,000 (about Sh30 million) in the project.
Growth and capacity
Ms Odero says Rio Fish started with five metallic cages of 5,000 fingerlings, and increased to 16 cages. Somewhere along the way, they were informed of the environmental hazard posed by the rust-prone metallic cages.
“We had to ship in plastic cages from China along with experts to fix the cages and nets,” she points out.
But while initially costly, the shift paid off, with production cycles reducing from 12 to seven months per year.
“We now have the right feeds, and understand the business better with more technical support from Kemfri and our partner organisation Gatsby Trust,” she explains.
Angela Odero, the founder and CEO of Rio Fish, a fish processing farm in Homa Bay. FILE PHOTO | POOL
Rio Fish has a mini-processing facility at Opapo town in Migori County which last year handled 513 metric tonnes.
The company has 30 staff and is looking to employ more because they see growth opportunities.
Hostile business environment
Statistics show that most small companies fail during the first three to five years after inception for several reasons, and according to Ms Odero, this is mainly due to bureaucratic red tape and the taxman acting as a bloodhound.
“Taxes are necessary, but they should look at where you are. It’s like you are being punished for making money, what with so many licences that most small enterprises cannot afford. It feels like everyone wants to milk money from you,” says the UK-trained financial expert.
Business model
Rio Fish’s model is to promote smallholder fish farmers, aggregate and process the fish and distribute it to women traders.
“We only produce 10 percent of what we sell. Initially, we thought we had too much fish, but due to huge demand, we realised that smallholder farmers are key to consistent fish supply. Currently, we are working with 350 farmers,” she says.
To ensure sustainability, she points out that Rio Fish has partnered with other organisations to train farmers on proper aquaculture practices.
Overcoming challenges
Aquaculture is a largely patriarchal sector, and Ms Odero knew as much, but she wasn’t prepared for the backlash she would receive.
“Apparently, it’s taboo for women to board a boat to check the cages! I ignored them [critics] and kept going and debunked that myth.”
Angela Odero, the founder and CEO of Rio Fish, a fish processing farm in Homa Bay in her office. FILE PHOTO | POOL
She also had to deal with the theft of her fish stock by fishermen who assumed they were harvesting all the fish.
“We had to engage the Beach Management Units, bring them closer, support them in fueling patrol boats, and give some cages to create a sense of responsibility,” she adds.
Staffing was also a problem because of limited aquaculture knowledge.
“We had a Ugandan farm manager for the longest time because we couldn’t get a local person. Some have integrity issues and poor work ethic and attitude.”
Even as Kenya is struggling with limited supply and great demand for fish, she decries cheap fish imports from China, thus unfair competition, adding that imported fish should be heavily taxed so that it lands at a price they can compete with.
Lessons Picked
In her entrepreneurial journey, she has learned not to trust anyone or anything other than ‘your shadow.’
“Do not employ relatives; employ the right personnel with the right qualifications. Avoid shortcuts, and know that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted,” she advises.
She adds that there will be highs and lows in the business and that an entrepreneur will most likely lose money before making it, “irrespective of the strategies you put in place.”
“No one starts and gets everything right, there is what you have on paper, but when you put everything on the ground, things don’t just happen,” she advises.
She concludes that as an entrepreneur, work smart and take time to strategise before implementing instead of firefighting and be more of a listener than a talker, though take that advice with a ‘pinch of salt.’
Growth Strategy.
The UK-trained financial expert says that she’s looking at doubling the company’s revenue in the next three years by having a strong relationship with the fish farmers because adequate fish supply will only come from them.
“We are building their capacity and have noticed that many women are interested in being suppliers instead of vendors. We aggregate fish, boost their efficiency, and have more people in the sector.”
They are also promoting data-led farming.
“We are developing an app, but right now, we are using an Excel sheet for data entry,” she adds.
Rio Fish has also adopted a franchising model, which currently stands at 15 outlets across the Lake region.
A worker at Rio Fish cleans fish before processing. FILE PHOTO | POOL
Celebrating Milestones
Ms Odero says that her joy is that Rio Fish is helping get more women to farm fish just like the men, and with the operationalisation of their Opapo plant, they have created employment for women and youth.
And being the Chairperson of the Commercial Aquaculture Association of Kenya, which contributes about 70 percent of aquaculture production in the country, they were instrumental in developing Kenya’s aquaculture policy document.
