Sep 17, 2020
4 Money Making Ideas In Agric Transportation
Over the years, the movement of agricultural products has been a great challenge. Transportation of agriproducts is in different ways: from farm to market, from farm to store, from farm to the processing site, from farm to the port, from farm to buyers, from seed sellers and other farm materials to farms, and so on. The list is endless, so is the challenge in terms of cost of transportation and scarcity of good and reliable transporters.
Apart from the fact that you are solving a problem of transportation by doing this business, you are sure to make a lot of money. A friend of mine who is into agro-haulage services moved a van conveying catfishes from Lagos to the east at ₦ 70, 000. This is just a fragment of the benefits in this business.
On a daily basis, huge quantities of grains, fruits, vegetables, plantains, seeds, cassava tubers, yam tubers etc. are moved from one part of Nigeria to another as well as other African countries. Despite this, there is still a high demand for transporters. All you need is to position yourself to solve one of the needs mentioned above.
You can position yourself where there are large farms and help move harvest or position yourself in a large agriproducts markets like Mile 12 in Lagos where major transactions take place on a daily basis and render the same service.
Building a good relationship with farmers and movers is very important. This is because they are the ones buyers contact for transactions while they look for transporters who will supply what is ordered, just like in the delivery business but with more money.
Refrigerated Vans
Another aspect you can focus on in this area of agribusiness is the use of refrigerated vans for the purpose of moving fresh and perishable products such as fruits, vegetable, meat, dairy products etc.
Many transport services don’t really consider refrigerated vans for haulage; all they care about is collecting money and moving products without considering the state of the products after delivery. If you offer this service, be sure to be patronized by many farmers.
Live Fish Transport
You can also consider live fish transport tanks. With this, it is easier and safer to transport live fish from the farms to desired destinations, without them dying.
What many people normally do is to load a van with many big bowls, filled with water and fishes. This method is not efficient because most times while on transit these fishes jump out of these bowls and sometimes fall off to the road without the knowledge of the driver. Other times, the water spill out and the fishes end up dying.
Livestock Transportation
Livestock like goats, cattle, poultry, pigs etc., are always moving out of the farms to animal markets, abattoirs, meat processing factories and so on. There is always a need for trucks to move this livestock. Providing this service will help farmers meet up with the demand of buyers while you make money in the process.
Fruits Transport
Ensure the use of plastic crates in place of raffia baskets for packing fresh tomato fruits, fresh pepper, fruits, etc. to avoid compression and spoilage. If you show farmers that you have plastic crates that will help preserve their products and reduce wastage, they will be more willing to trust you with their products.
You can be innovative with your haulage business by imbibing technology in order to be ahead of competitors. You can adopt the “uber model” by developing an app from which you can be booked by farmers in the location you operate.
As any serious business would do, invest in marketing, using social media and watch your business boom.
