Diana Orembe
Interview with Diana Orembe
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, NOVFEED
Lives in: Tanzania
This yr, Tanzanian entrepreneur Diana Orembe expects her enterprise, NovFeed, to generate properly over $1 million in gross sales. The corporate produces fish feed and natural fertiliser. In December, Orembe took house first prize within the Africa’s Enterprise Heroes entrepreneurship competitors. How we made it in Africa’s editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz spoke to her about how she constructed the enterprise.
Subjects mentioned throughout the interview embody:
- Accepting that every one companies are onerous
- Tips on how to promote to small-scale farmers
- Recognizing a enterprise alternative in fish feed
- Getting the enterprise off the bottom
- The toughest half: promoting
Watch the complete interview beneath:
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Interview abstract
For Diana Orembe, co-founder and chief government of NovFeed – a Tanzanian fish feed and natural fertiliser firm – one of many core classes of entrepreneurship is that every one companies are onerous.
“Should you discuss to a girl promoting greens on the markets, she’s going to let you know how onerous it’s to run her enterprise. Should you discuss to an individual working a conglomerate, he’ll simply say the identical [about] how tough it’s to run that very enormous, massive enterprise. Should you discuss to a medium-scale enterprise one who is even working only a retailer, they’ll inform you an identical [about] the way it’s tough. So what I used to be simply reminding myself this morning is that every one companies are tough,” she explains.
As an alternative of trying to find a better path, Orembe retains in thoughts that the grass isn’t greener elsewhere – each kind of enterprise comes with its personal set of issues.
The origins of NovFeed
Orembe grew up near Lake Victoria – Africa’s largest freshwater lake. “We used to clean our garments [and] fetch water straight from the lake,” she remembers.
It was there she watched her uncle run a small-scale fish farm, continuously complaining concerning the excessive value and common shortage of fish feed.
Whereas finding out microbiology on the College of Dar es Salaam, Orembe researched the aquaculture sector in Tanzania. She realised that the issues her uncle had complained about had been nonetheless prevalent throughout the business. The nation was closely depending on imported fish feed, which saved costs excessive.
Decided to create an inexpensive native different, she relied on the College of Dar es Salaam’s laboratory to conduct her preliminary analysis and develop a minimal viable product. She formally launched NovFeed in 2020.
The enterprise converts meals waste collected from native markets into fish feed via a pure fermentation course of. This course of additionally yields a microbial liquid byproduct that NovFeed sells as fertiliser. In its early days, the corporate operated out of a small manufacturing facility with a most capability of 30 tonnes of feed monthly.
Gross sales and distribution
When it got here to gross sales, Orembe’s crew saved their messaging easy. They prevented specializing in the precise manufacturing course of or utilizing phrases like ‘sustainability. “I’ve discovered alongside the journey that the message you’re giving your prospects actually issues. Once you inform an individual that that is bacteria-made fish feed, everybody will run away.”
As an alternative, the crew centered on the advantages, telling potential purchasers that they had discovered a greater approach to produce fish feed at a way more inexpensive value. The feed sells for $1.30 per kg with a 30% revenue margin, and the fertiliser for $3 per litre with a 35% margin.
The corporate additionally gives after-sales help to farmers, advising them on common fish farming greatest practices.
NovFeed’s merchandise are offered via agricultural outlets in Tanzania. To get farmers and agro shops within the merchandise, the corporate arrange demonstration farms to point out them in motion. Orembe notes that agro shops sometimes solely need to inventory merchandise that farmers already know, reasonably than danger shelf area on one thing unfamiliar that can simply sit there.
Orembe says it wasn’t till 2024 that she felt she actually had a strong enterprise. For her, that validation got here when prospects began inserting repeat orders. “It doesn’t matter how good your product is, in case you can’t retain the purchasers, it should all the time be one of many indicators that your product isn’t working,” she explains. “So for us, the second we began seeing the client is shopping for and is coming again, that was an excellent signal.”
Growing manufacturing
In December, the corporate gained $300,000 within the Africa’s Enterprise Heroes competitors. The funding was allotted to growing the corporate’s manufacturing capability. Now, with its new manufacturing facility, NovFeed can produce greater than 20 tonnes of fish feed per day.
Orembe can also be taking a look at opening the corporate’s personal community of shops.
In 2024, the enterprise generated $420,000 in income. Orembe notes that in 2025, gross sales doubled. With the brand new facility operational, she expects income to extend by much more than that in 2026.
‘It’s a must to promote’
Regardless of the latest income progress and the brand new manufacturing facility, Orembe factors out that the challenges by no means cease. She cites recruitment – buying the proper expertise and managing them – as one of many hardest components of her job.
However her greatest fast concern is promoting the sheer quantity of product the corporate is now able to making.
“I’ve by no means been capable of produce 20 tonnes of feed per day … Now the place am I going to search for a buyer who can entry that per day?” she wonders, including that she worries about whether or not older leads have already discovered different suppliers. “All this stuff have been working into my thoughts.”
“With the ability to produce [is] only one factor,” she provides. “However on the finish of the day, you must promote. That’s essentially the most, most tough half.”
