Diversity in business is essential at minimizing investment risks. It disperses the risk and helps in maintaining, expanding, and exploring growth potential of emerging firms. AquaLink has explored diversification to incorporate banana and sweet potato planting at its farm in Zomba to retain its growth potential. The company is growing bananas and sweet potatoes on portion of the farm’s unused land that surrounds fish ponds. AquaLink established a fish farm including a hatchery and grow-out facility in Zomba in 2022. The farm has since its opening supplied over 70,000 fingerlings to grow-out farmers throughout the country.

Figure 1: Directors, Moses and Pemphero planting banana suckers

The diversity in banana and sweet potato production aims to service local markets located within the vicinity of the farm. AquaLink observed supply deficits for bananas and sweet potatoes in local markets, yet the demand remains high. The demand for bananas in peri-urban and rural markets is unmet largely due to inefficiencies in the supply chain. Of notice is the limited in-country production; for a longtime, Malawi has been complementing banana supplies through importation from Mozambique and Tanzania. This in turn affects the availability of bananas in local markets. The undersupplies are also a product of the distance required to transport the fruit across international borders. Traders take long distances to transport bananas to desired markets.

To improve availability of bananas, AquaLink has invested in production of the commodity. The rationale is to enhance accessibility of bananas in local markets located in proximity to AquaLink farms. The company has thus far planted 200 suckers as a matter of startup. The plan is to plant more later in the year whilst waiting for harvesting of the planted batch. AquaLink is geared to utilize Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) to promote production of Bananas and sweet potatoes.

Figure 2: Packing harvested sweet potatoes.

AquaLink strives to enhance production and accessibility of nutritious products in Malawi. The company employs a market driven approach in its investment endeavors. Production of fish, bananas and sweet potatoes has strong potential not to only improve revenues for the company but also address malnutrition challenges in Malawi.