Road to recovery
Peer support promotes business survival
MAMA’S Mushrooms have slowly started to recover its business functionality after the COVID-19 pandemic affected its operations in 2020.
Founder Fanny Fiteli said not only were they affected by the COVID pandemic but Tropical Cyclone Harold had devastated their business.
“So our main greenhouse got blown away and then we moved everything into our dining room and what happened was we got in lockdown and we couldn’t supply out.
“Basically we had to contact our contracted farms outside of Lautoka to deliver and then they went into lockdown and then we had to deliver.
“We lost about 70 per cent of our business but I think because of the resilience of business communities and businesses in general in Fiji we were able to survive because we then began to look after each other to support, just sort of identifying the vulnerabilities that were similar.”
The business survival was basically through the peer support in SMEs as Ms Fiteli said it was being able to provide their services at a lower cost to each other.
“Mama’s Mushrooms were really fortunate to be part of YHER accelerator from Australia so we got some seed funding and then we received some growth funding as well just basically to get back on our feet.
“We also got the concessional loan to be able to work on some more equipment and things such as assistance but largely I think all entrepreneurs were able to survive because of a business continuity plan.”
She said one of the risk factors in their business continuity plan was preparing for natural disasters like a cyclone.
“We didn't have a plan as per say for COVID but for the cyclone yes.
“So what happened was it just happened together and so it morphed into surviving through the cyclone and through COVID, which lasted longer than the cyclone.”
She said the business had bounced back from 30 per cent functionality to 78 per cent functionality.
“I can't say much for other entrepreneurs but for us we kept it small in the beginning and most importantly being able to keep the relationship and keep communicating with other customers just letting them know where we were at with our business.
“We actually increased our client base during COVID because people were looking to having a fresher produce.”
Mama's Mushrooms supply to a lot of individuals who according to Ms Fiteli, were focusing on being health conscious during the pandemic.
“Some hotels then started to take mushrooms from us to redesign their menus because they realised they wanted to integrate the importance the vegetables, they were using looking at local options and in terms of mushrooms and we were one of the go to.
“So we started to send to hotels in Savusavu and in Nadi,” she said.
For Mama's Mushroom the year 2021 is one where they are hoping to tap into the international market and grow certain aspect of their business.
"We have our value-added product which is spicy oyster mushroom pickles and so we have already been able to send some of our samples to Australia and some to the United States of America.
“And so far we have gotten good feedback so now we are looking at what is the capacity or the quantities that we need to work towards that would be feasible and would be achievable as well.”
She said there were also plans to start on their four hector properties which they had just acquired to grow their growing facilities.
“So we are going into a bigger commercial space and also intertwining the mushroom with others, it's a mixed farming concept.
“The second thing we wanted to do is to increase the number of contract farmers to help support the market and so that would include training.
“And the third thing was to just basically increase our revenues as a business and just to be able to employ more people because that’s what we need.”
Ms Fiteli said they needed people to work in the different sections of the processing as at the moment they had 16 contracted farms which were located in Naitasiri and Lautoka.
According to the founder they would normally buy between 20kg to 30kg from a farmer on a weekly basis but now it usually depends on what the farmer provides.
She said the supply and demand fluctuated as there was a bigger market for supply at the moment. However this was said to be a good problem for any business as domestic markets were increasing as well.
“We just turned out a marketing strategy towards increasing business so that's just started this year.
“We also have started with a series of cooking videos and things like that which would sort of garner interest from our customers as well.”