Dorcas' Story : Success story, training by SUGECO

‘‘Our dream is to have a big industry for jam making which will compete in both national and international markets’’

A 25-year-old Dorcas Dismas is a 2016 graduate in Bachelor of Science in Agriculture General from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). After completing their studies, she found herself on one street with no employment or anything to do for about one month. Later on, she decided to join a company that works on the distribution of cosmetics. Despite the low salary, she had to use a lot of time convincing customers to buy the products and walking long distances looking for the customers.

She decided to leave a job and find another one that will help her get money to fulfill her personal needs. This is when she visited Sokoine University Graduate Entrepreneurs Cooperative (SUGECO) looking for a job. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance because the organization was not looking for new employees.

On 17 October 2017, she was invited to attend a 3-day training conducted by SUGECO in collaboration with In the International Trade Centre (ITC) on post-harvest management and handling of horticultural prproducts.The training was tended by 30 youth who were the producers and processors of horticultural produces. It is where she learned how to make jam, mango pickle, chill sauce, and tomato sauce.

After completing  the training, she formed a group of 6 youths who did not get the opportunity to attend the training. They agreed to start making jam  sell to look at the market and how customers will accept their product. On 15/11/2017, they met together and Dorcas trained the other five youths on how to make jams .They managed to make 20 jams with two frfruitarieties with the mixture of pineapple, strawberry, blackberry a, and black currant.

They sold the jam to the family members and their friends. The feedback was good with relatively low challenges, like lack of labels and lack of resources. Despite challenges, their product was accepted by the people and they managed to finish selling those 20 jams in three days.

‘‘Apart from the challenges we are not discouraged as we know when you are starting any business challenges must be there and you cannot tackle all challenges in a short period we are now planning to do labeling, make more jam as we can depend on the resources that we have and then after, we will register our company’’.