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Who thought one would earn from Katunkuma?
Kiggundu displays some of the Katunkuma packaged products at his office in Kampala. Photo by Faiswal Kasirye.
What you need to know:
A lawyer by profession, Kiggundu has found a new source of income that he has through the years baby seated to grow into a formidable enterprise.
When I first contacted Mr Michael Kiggundu for an interview about his pickled bitter berries (katunkuma) business, he happily gave me a date.
However, on the due date Kiggundu would not make it for the interview still as he told me he had to deliver orders that he had not thought would materialise around the same time.
Even after we had agreed we would meet the next day, Kiggundu had another reason to disappoint me as he again had to cancel the interview.
However, this gave me some insight on how Kiggundu has become so engrossed in his business with less time to waste away even on important assignments.
But after telling me today, tomorrow and so on, we finally meet much to the relief of my anxiety of wanting to understand how Kiggundu has managed to make katunkuma a lucrative business.
His work station is at the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering, Makerere University and that’s where he partly conducts his trade.
After a few pleasantries, he picks a few tins of the pickled bitter berries and with these he tries to explain to me a few bits about his business.
Finally I pose my first question, how of all things did you decide to come up with a katunkuma packing business?
First, he says “Katunkuma has the right percentage of frolics (75 per cent), thus a growing number of people have become accustomed to having it on their menu as a side dish.”
To preserve all the nutrients, Mr Kiggundu, a lawyer by profession, has developed some technology called pickling, where the katunkuma is canned and steamed for a few minutes, before being put to the market as a ready to eat product.
The katunkuma story, he says, is one of ingenuity, persistence, patience, hard work, self-assessment and self-motivation.
“Katunkuma is not popular with many people but is consumed by a certain class of people especially those with hypertension, heart, bladder and liver problems.”
“So it’s hard to expect high returns. It is only motivation that has driven me to pursue this concept to the last end.”
Kiggundu quit his job at Nandos – a Kampala uptown restaurant to concentrate on a job that has progressively built his profile.
“I made up my mind to resign because I knew that with God on my side, I could succeed elsewhere.”
Although the beginning was not easy due to lack of market awareness for the product, I have persevered and currently I have started to make some good proceeds.
Good returns on investment
While Kiggundu is cagey on how much he generates from the business, he says that at least every month he is assured of a 30 per cent return on investment.
The business which started with Shs300,000 has in about two and a half years grown to about Shs13 million trading as Kasaali Foods Ltd.
Kiggundu has attended a number of entrepreneurship courses to boost his skills in canned foods, at various cetres including the Uganda Industrial Research Institute and at Faculty of Food Science, Makerere University.
In addition he has received some mentoring lessons from Prof William Kyamuhangire, the manager of Makerere University Food Technology and Business Incubation Centre.
The business – Kisaali Foods – is run by two people: himself as the production manager and Mr Israel Wogali, the company’s marketing manager, with whom he co-owns the business.
Kisaali Foods currently produces about 30 cartoons (360 tins) of canned katunkuma per month, up from only 12 cans when the business had just started.
Some of the products are exported while others are sold locally.
In Uganda, Kiggundu’s supplies can be found on shelves of Uchumi, Mega and Karibu supermarkets and a number of retail outlets and stores around Kampala.
The product that has a one and a half year life span is also marketed beyond Uganda including in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Mr Kiggundu sources much of his raw materials (bitter berries) from Owino and Kibuye markets at about Shs2,000 per kilogramme.
He, however, says that because the plant was originally considered as a wild crop, it is not commercially grown, which presents a challenge for sustainable production.
To guarantee supply, Mr Kigundu has made arrangements with two out-growers - one in Jinja and the other in Mukono, to grow an acre of the plant each, which he can use to supplement the supplies he gets from Owino and Kibuye markets.
However, the long shelf life of the product gives him an advantage to buy in bulk during the harvest season and preserve it, ready for sale even during dry seasons.
The 450 grammes tin is retailed at Shs5,000 and Shs4,500 for wholesalers. Kissali Foods also produces canned malewa, which he supplies to Karibu Supermarket in Ntinda.
