Didas Mzirai: Founder of Mucho Mangoes, Kenya

Oct 09, 2024

Please tell us your name, where your business is located and what is it that you do?

My name is Didas Mzirai, and my business is located in Taveta, southern Kenya, bordering Tanzania on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Our mission is focused on empowering rural smallholder farmers, especially mango and banana farmers, to produce better quality products, then we provide them with a ready and reliable market. We solar dry mangoes and bananas and process dried mangoes, banana flour, family porridge mixed flour as well as banana and potato crisps.

Tell us about how you got started.

Mucho Mangoes Ltd is an award winning social enterprise that was born out of a passion and the desire to eliminate farm produce waste, losses, and poverty, in the Kenyan Mango and banana farming industry. Mucho Mangoes was founded in 2015 by Didas Mzirai, in Taveta, rural Kenya. Mzirai’s Vision for Mucho Mangoes emerged when, as a very young boy that was born out of wedlock and raised by his grandmother who is a farmer, he had to work during school holidays, picking mangoes for a fruit exporting company in order to make ends meet. Having worked for a fruits exporting company, Didas witnessed firsthand, how poor, rural smallholder farmers were being exploited by middlemen, and their products graded at the point of exit, leaving them with lots of rejects which ended up flooding the local markets and rotting, just because they don’t meet the required international standards. Didas started Mucho Mangoes to address these issues.

What makes your company unique?

Our competitors run away from farmers production challenges, but we run towards those challenges, assist farmers to produce better quality-low-cost products and backed by Government, we restrain competitors from buying from our contracted-schemes. 

No business is without setbacks, can you tell us about a time when you faced a significant setback and how you recovered from it?

There was a time that we had attracted an international buyer. They wanted us to provide a product data sheet for our banana flour, and so we decided to take our products to a government lab for analysis and certification, instead of just picking information online. We wanted to do the right thing. The lab delayed the results and certification process, until the client pulled out. Although all the products were later certified, we lost business, and from that time, we have been working with both private and government labs. Private laboratories are more efficient.

How do you define success and to what do you attribute your success?

Success for us at Mucho Mangoes Ltd is to be able to change or improve the livelihoods of a farmer’s family. That’s what success mean to us. We attribute our success to the various collaborators and partners, who, together, we have impacted very many people’s lives.

What's next for your business, what will it look like in 5 years?

In the next 5 years, we expect to have built a bigger, higher capacity fruits processing facility, and venture into cold storage. We also plan to scale into other Counties in Kenya, and expand into other East African countries.

What do you think the future holds for Africa-focused entrepreneurs and advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

Every of the many challenges that face Africa today present excellent opportunities for African entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is about solving people’s problems. I know that finances might be a challenge for those that are starting up, but I would advise them to keep the focus and work hard. Start where you’re, with what you have, but make sure to start and work hard and smart. Every effort will surely be rewarded at some point.

Owning a business while balancing a personal life can be challenging; how do you take care of yourself?

I love travelling, and once in a while, I go swimming. I am also a foodie. So, I make sure to treat myself well.

What is your favorite quote or mantra?  What keeps you going?

The impossible is always possible. And if it has been possible with others, it is possible for you too. 

What is your favorite app or a business tool that you can't live without

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