Business plan preparation for high-density planting of tissue cultured bananas on a large-scale farm

Business Plan for High Density Banana Plantings
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Situation

A reputable food service logistics firm required a business plan incorporating technical designs and an operational plan for a proposed investment in a large-scale (2,100 acres) high-density planting of East African Highland and Cavendish banana varieties.

This scale of investment called for the use of tissue-cultured banana technology for planting materials, completion of comprehensive soil analysis to inform soil nutrient and physical properties remediation for yield maximization, and irrigation planning to optimize banana bunch yields and finger sizes.

In addition, a CapEx plan was required to model capital commitments across a range of return scenarios and assumptions.

Industries
Business Advisory Services
Commercial Advisory Services
Agribusiness & Food Systems
Finance & Investment
Capital Raising & Impact Investing
Engagement

ORI assembled a team of water engineers, soil scientists, agribusiness strategists, and financial structuring experts to conduct detailed diligence and help the client realize a commercial banana operation.

Specifically, ORI helped the client by:

  • Carrying out extensive diligence of the banana value chain, from soil analysis to planting materials evaluation, crop water use requirements, irrigation reticulation, farm operations, harvesting, and post-harvest handling—to the marketing plan.
  • Conducting tests on the availability of groundwater at various locations on the farm using modern survey methods, e.g. vertical electrical resistivity sounding for subsurface exploration of groundwater.
  • Determining key borehole characteristics, e.g. depth at first and main water strikes, expected quantity of water from viable boreholes, location coordinates, and expected discharge and pumping rates and effect on water availability in the general area.
  • Completing water use assessment and water quality analysis based on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics.
  • Investigating policies and regulations governing water use in Uganda and ensuring strict compliance with the requirements for fair use, abstraction, and groundwater level maintenance in the local area.
  • Assessing the capacity of tissue culture banana laboratories in Uganda to ensure timely delivery of the required numbers of clean and disease-free banana plantlets.
  • Conducting market assessment to optimize commercial scale operations, including irrigation, while ensuring responsible groundwater resources management.
  • Analyzing operational plans and costing across all farm activities, labor, energy, equipment, and logistics, among other things.
  • Structuring end-to-end financial requirements across the farm operations and assisting with capital raising to realize the objective of the farm.
Outcomes
  • Based on our advice, the client established a successful commercial-scale banana farm that continues to supply the Ugandan market with fruit bananas as well as matooke. The farm profitability is based on block irrigation and efficient route-to-market logistics.
  • The client designed a farm-specific irrigation system based on tissue culture banana technology and drip irrigation technology. This system was consistent with the groundwater yield and aligned with water regulations and internationally recognized standards for responsible groundwater use.
  • ORI delivered the project in line with the CapEx projections and requirements, including a phased investment and farm establishment schedule.