Tuyishime earns Rwf3m a month from piggery

It is said that when you listen to your fears, you die without knowing that you could have become a great person. It’s a different story for the 27-year-old Herve Tuyishime, he defied his fears to venture in a business many educated youth would never think of; piggery and beef industry.Tuyishime, the managing director and founder of Paniel Meat Processing, says his desire to engage in business was inspired by witnessing what young graduates were going through to get jobs. “I resolved to start my own business to avoid going through the same experience,” he says, adding that he wanted to do something that wasn’t common. That’s how he ended up as a pig farmer and sausage-maker.“I had enrolled for an entrepreneurship course at Business Development Centre, Rwanda (BDC) hoping to start a filmmaking project, but soon I realised that it lacked a sustainable market and required huge investment capital.”Fortunately, the graduate of business management had two business ideas, the other being a piggery project.“I knew such an enterprise would expand quickly given the high rate at which pigs produce,” says Tuyishime, who has a four-hectare pig farm in Gicumbi District, Northern Province. The young entrepreneur started with one piglet, but now has more than 60 and about 100 goats.Tuyishime says he decided to tap into other opportunities presented by this resource and set up a sausage making plant.Big breakHe added that the project got a boost in May 2012 when he won the Hangumulimu Entrepreneurship competition, and got Rwf20m loan that he used to expand and modernise his production lines.“I now produce 210kg of sausages per week, which I supply to all the major supermarkets and other meat outlets in Kigali and other towns,” he says. He says all his projects bring in over Rwf3m per month. The young business man employs eight other young graduates, some of whom are helping expand the business to other regions in the country.“We want to increase output and promote the products to boost our competitiveness at local and regional levels,” he points out.Tuyishime is optimistic that the growing agriculture industry will benefit his business.Tuyishime’s project got another boost last year when he won the Real Fina Bank Entrepreneurship Award of Rwf4m, an airline ticket from KLM, six months of free broadband from Airtel and free access to Educat’s entrepreneurship training programme for six months.“I will use the money to further expand the enterprise to boost production capacity from 210kg of sausages to over 500kg per week. I will also rebrand and refine the production lines so that I can start exporting the sausages,” he says.ChallengesLike other businesses engaged in similar ventures, Tuyishime says the high packaging and transport fees are the biggest obstacles to his business. He is however, hopeful the cash prize he won at the recent Educat organised entrepreneurship award will enable him to grow the business further and venture into regional markets. “We want to sell Made in Rwanda sausages to other parts of the world,” Tuyishime notes. Future plansTuyishime says he will open more pig farms and establish a slaughtering house for meat, chicken and fish processing. He also plans to start a rabbit farm and targets to have hit 600 rabbits by the year’s end.Future plansAndreas Noerlem, Educat CEO“The agriculture sector will benefit greatly from Paniel Meat Processing. Tuyishime will play a vital role in promoting Rwanda’s agribusiness and meat industry.Dianne Dusaidi, MD and co-founder of Legacy45 Entertainment He is a go-getter, very dynamic and is always trying out new ideas.