Funding
Wheth
support could be a donation, an investment, a loan or a combination of these.
Besides the investment for the constrution of the greenhouse, HortiTerra needs to become a profitable company. Therefore a short description of the cost/revenue model:
Costs
The most expensive key activity is the cultivation of tomatoes, so production and salaries are the highest costs, especially in the beginning. When employees are more experienced the production process will become more effective and therefore less expensive. Also there are less salary costs when students start to work in the greenhouse and therefore there are less employees needed.
The production has variable costs, this varies with the volume of tomatoes that are produced. Maintenance on the greenhouse and training centre, but also salaries and marketing costs are fixed costs. When the design for the greenhouse is ready, a more detailed plan for the costs can be made. For the production part many things still have to be researched. It depends on the amount of tomatoes how much water, fertilizers, energy, packages, pesticides and seeds are required. The costs for production will be divided more or less equally over the year because the current plan is to seed the tomato plants not all at once, but in groups in different weeks. This way there is a possibility to harvest tomatoes all year round.Educational costs include study materials but also two meals per day per student.
Revenues
For this project (and for sustainable entrepreneurship in general) the goal is to generate sufficient income to become financial independent of donors of high-income economies. This is especially important in the (start-up) business stage, but also in the educational stage later on. Then the greenhouse needs to create enough revenues to support the trainings institute.
Until now, there has been done little market research. The assumptions about the market are based on the observations of two of the partners of the project who visited Ghana recently: Vincent Gambrah and Martien Duijndam. It is important to know whether there is a demand for high quality vegetables and if yes, what vegetables have the highest demand. So what is the value customers are willing to pay for? Based on Vincent and Martien for now there has been concluded that the greenhouse business should grow high quality tomatoes. The accent on the ‘high quality’ is important to serve our most important customer segment. The consumers of these high quality tomatoes are people of the middle class and therefore HortiTerra wants to deliver to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels to reach these people.
Nowadays, the main part of the tomatoes used in Ghana is imported. So basically the value the customer wants to pay for, is already there. But by growing a high quality product in the country of use, the same product will be a lot cheaper and therefore more attractive for buyers. Also quality is better guaranteed from a local manufactured product than from abroad, especially with a fragile product such as tomatoes.
Finally, when the greenhouse is fully operational and ready to continue to the educational stage another customer segment can be served. There might be a possibility to sell tomatoes in a lower price range to people involved in the company, like students or employees. Think about tomatoes that are fine for consumption, but are not as perfect enough for distribution and sales to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. If these tomatoes would be sold instead of thrown away, there are many profits. Not only is it useless to throw food away that is still useful for consumption, there is less waste production and people involved in the company are able to profit from good, affordable tomatoes. But this is still an idea and the possibilities and feasibility need to be researched on the spot.