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There are many agricultural business idea this article will focus on one of them. We will look at how to start a profitable business buying and selling agriculture produce in Nigeria.

If you love agriculture businesses but are struggling to start a farm
due to financial constraints or any other challenges farmers encounter,
buying and selling agriculture produce is an interesting area to look
into. Pay attention to this post, you will learn a lot.

The good thing about this business, and what I love most about it, is
that anybody can do it. It does not matter whether you are unemployed,
employed, side hustler, rich or poor, school leaver, Corps member,
anybody can do this.

You don’t need any special skills or a large piece of land or a huge
bank account. I will walk you through how to start a profitable business
buying and selling agriculture produce with as little amount of money
as you can muster.C

Decide what to sell

Let me start by saying that you can sell anything and on any scale,
be it as a retailer, wholesaler or distributor. It shouldn’t sound like
there are items you cannot sell. The decision becomes necessary because
there are other factors to consider while choosing what agriculture
produce to buy/sell.

While deciding what to sell, you need to come up with a plan the sustainability of your business.

Your plan should take into consideration how much capital you have to
start the business. The amount of money you have will go a long way to
decide what you should buy and how/where you sell it.

You can start with as little as N20,000; you can even start with less than that. The amount of money you have will determine what ROI you can expect at the end of the day.
Your plan should also take a hard look at yourself and determine the amount of time you can commit to the business, and which model of this business you are most suited for.

If
you have a full-time job, for example, you won’t have the time to tour
the market looking for who to buy your baskets of fresh pepper, does it?
But it makes a lot of sense to buy melon seeds (Egusi) at one time of
the year and sell them during the off-season. You see where I’m going
with this?

There are 3 ways you can approach agro-commodity trade:

1. Buy/sell small quantities

You can buy the produce you want from the farmers
and sell to the market within the same area. This does not require much
capital because there is little logistics/transport concerns. Everything
is done within the same state so your cost is minimal.

If you establish a trust relationship with the
farmers, some of them could even let you sell their produce first and
return the money, so you don’t need to pay first.

The drawback to this is that you can expect the ROI
to be minimal. Since the trade is done within the same state, many
farmers would figure that they can sell their own produce themselves and
make even more profit.

Therefore, if you are targeting a decent ROI, this
may not be the way to go. But if you have little or no money to start
this business, then you should start with this.

2. Medium/Large scale

Another way you can approach agro-commodity trade is to buy produce from one state of the country and sell in another.

Here’s an example: you can buy tubers of yam from
Benue state where they have yams in abundance, and sell in Sokoto state
where yams are usually scarce. On your way back, you can buy whatever
Sokoto state has in abundance and sell in Benue state.

You can even buy from one African country and sell in another. I know people who would buy dried fish from Mali and sell in Nigeria. This model has the most ROI but it also carries the most risk because one road accident could wipe off your entire capital, especially if you have no insurance.

You
will need a lot of time on your hands for this and you should be
prepared to travel much. This is not the business you start with N50k;
only the transport costs could take more than the N50k you have.

You need a larger capital base to start the
business. One thing you shouldn’t worry about is profit; all things
being equal, you should make a very decent ROI on your investment.

3. Store now/sell later

Another way you can approach agro-commodity trade
is to buy a particular produce during its peak season when the price is
cheap, store the produce, and sell months later during its off season.

Some of the items you can store like this are palm oil, melon seeds (egusi), ogbono, Guinea Corn, dried pepper, etc.

You will need to know when the produce you are interested in is in
season. When in season, such produce would be significantly cheaper. So
you buy it when it is cheaper and sell when the price increases.

This model of business is best suited for employees
or business people who need to invest their money somewhere else
instead of keeping them in the bank. It takes a lot of time between
buying and selling, you will need to be patient.

If you are buying large quantities of produce, be sure to get a
goods-in-transit insurance. Accidents could happen at any time, you
don’t want to be on the losing side of it.

Finally, the decision to start is the most important. If
you cannot afford to start big, choose to start small and grow into a
big business.

If you are already in the business, I’d like to hear your experience in your comments.