EXPORT FARMING: FINE BEANS

Fine beans or green beans as they are commonly known in Zimbabwe are a good and easy crop to grow for the local and export market. This is the first of a series of articles in which we shall be chronicling in detail the various crops that you as a farmer can grow for the export market.

By Emmanuel D.N Dube: ZBIN Agronomy correspondent

1.What do I need to be able to export fine beans?

Just like any other export crop you will need your farm to be GGAP and SMETA certified before you export. I strongly encourage that you enlist the services of a reputable consultant to help you with this. You can contact the details below and will refer you to reputable consultants.

2.Do I need a lot of labour to manage this crop?

Well fine beans do not require much labour during the vegetative phase. However more is needed at the harvesting stage. You will need on average a minimum of 60 people per ha at peak harvesting. This should determine how much you should be planting in terms of area.

3.Climatic /Soil requirements?

Without getting too technical fine beans can be grown pretty much through out the year in Zimbabwe. The crops seem to do quite well during the winter April – July season as disease and pest incidence is low. A summer crop also thrives but rain seems to bring along with it a lot of fungal diseases which affects quality tremendously, greater care needs to be taken here in terms of management. Well drained soils are the best soils for fine beans, as a universal rule we encourage farmers to plant on raised ridges. Fertiliser requirements should be determined by soil analysis avoid using blanket fertilisers applications.

4.Market and Quality

There is a huge market for fine beans locally and on the export market. The trick is you must meet the export quality requirements. Depending on the market things such as length, width, size, colour have a very slim margin to which your crop should conform to.

5.Management and harvesting

Harvesting – great care needs to be taken at this stage. I have seen several farmers loose it all at this stage. There is an old Shona adage which says “kuputsahariwasvika”, loosely translated it means failing at the last hurdle. Missing one day of picking this crop when the crop has matured means the entire harvest of that day will be out of spec. What this means is that the crop will be out of the required export quality required range. Fine beans are fast growers and overnight they can be ready for harvesting. This goes back to the fact mentioned earlier on the need to have adequate labour to harvest the crop.

6.How much do I need to invest?

Just for arguments sake we will assume this new farmer does not have anything and is starting from scratch. He/she will need to invest approximately 4 800 USD/ha.

7.How much do I expect in return?

Perhaps I need to emphasize that quality is everything in the export business. If you do not meet the quality requirements you will run a loss. Most contractors will pay between 1.20 – 1.35/kg exported. Farmer will produce on average 8 t/ha but with good management 15t/ha is achievable. The profit margins are quite reasonable at a minimum of 22 % profit.If you invest 5 000 you get back about 1 100 USD Profit/ha. Note this has taken into consideration all running costs. It may seem like it is not much but remember this is in the much-needed USD currency.

8.Considering the costs attached with getting GGAP/SMETA certification is it still viable?

Yes, it is viable but ……. I would strongly urge the farmer to grow other export crops as well. The certificate can cover several export crops at once. This ensures continuous production and kind of spreads the costs amongst the crops.

9.How do I get contracted?

A good reference point is Zimtrade, they can easily direct you to several companies in the fresh produce export business in Zimbabwe. Most markets in the EU will not want to deal directly with a producer for various reasons. I also urge would be export farmers to be cautious when choosing a company to deal with, fresh produce export is big business and a lot of con artists are out there, deal with reputable organisations only. Short cuts are always wrong cuts.

10. How long does it take to grow

All things held constant it will take on average 7 -10 weeks to mature depending on the variety.

Emmanuel is an Agronomist and Development practitionerwith more than a decade’s experience working in the agri-business industry and development sector. You can contact him on edndsep@gmail.com or whatsapp on 0783495396