Mhuri Enterprise: Innovating the Value Chain of Small-Scale Pig-Farms in Zimbabwe

By Hau Lee, Richard Chivaka
2018 | Case No. GS92 | Length 15 pgs.
Mhuri Enterprise had beaten the odds, and figured out a way to cut production costs to bring its pigs to market and make a profit. Small-scale enterprises faced a large number of financial, regulatory, and business barriers in Zimbabwe, a country where 70 percent of the population relied on agriculture as a source of income. Land reforms in 1998 had led to an increase in the number of small-to-medium enterprise farmers, but the lack of scale meant low productivity. This case study examines how Mhuri Enterprise, a cooperative pig farm that started with 30 families, restructured the value chain to cut production costs and established its own slaughterhouse facilities to circumvent monopolistic processing fees. The case offers a close look at the full range of fees and costs associated with a livestock ventures—including costs not unique to the situation in Zimbabwe.

Learning Objective

Students will learn about the economics of pig production in Zimbabwe, and the cost factors that impact whether farmers could be successful. Students also gain insights on why the cooperative approach allowed this group of villagers to succeed, even though the odds were stacked against small-scale ventures.
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