Ten times the hard work
Nacanieli Takele
Kamlesh Prasad, left, with principal agricultural officer (west) Sugrim Chand. Right: Tasty fruits inside Kamlesh's storage room. Picture: MINISTRY OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
HE is not afraid to take risks and works hard to achieve what he wants. If he fails in one endeavour, he'll move on to the next.
Kamlesh Prasad of Navakai in Nadi has proved over the years that he always gives his best in everything he does.
Married to Angela and blessed with three daughters, Kamlesh is the owner of Farm Boy Company and the Farm Boy cooler truck that many farmers in the Western Division are familiar with.
The 42-year-old farmer and produce distributor has a 10-acre farm in Navakai but also buys produce from specially selected farmers in the Western Division and Tailevu to supply hotels in Denarau, the Yasawas and Mamanucas.
He also supplies fresh produce to visiting yachts, super yachts and local restaurants. He even has a market stall in Nadi.
But life was not always easy for Kamlesh. Born in Sigatoka, Nadroga in 1969, he was brought up in a farming community in Raiwaqa on the east bank of the Sigatoka River.
He started his education there before he moved with his family to Nadi in 1983. He finished high school with a University Entrance pass and went on to acquire a trade certificate in motor vehicle repairs.
"I left school in 1987 and became a full-time cane farmer," Kamlesh said.
"I won the Best Cane Farmer of the Year in 1992 and also served in the Cane District Council and at the national level."
Kamlesh said because of the difficulties with cane and the milling system, he gave up.
"I went broke because of all the cane headaches. I parked all my machines and with only 20 cents in my pocket, I started farming vegetables for the export market."
He had his own trade as a mechanic, his own job and a 10-acre farm, but money from all those were not enough to sustain his family. He remembers those days very well and how he struggled to sell his produce and make ends meet for his family. But he also knew that there was no substitute for hard work.
"The difficulty I faced with exporters was that when I was supplying them produce, there were too many rejects and the price kept fluctuating. So I opted to go into the local market and sell the produce myself.
"I started with about 20 cents or basically nothing in my pocket, walked barefoot to the market or hired trucks, but through hard work and good business sense, I have slowly nurtured and grown my business about tenfold in the past seven years.
"From that day, I started venturing into selling my own produce; I have never given up and have never looked back. I have kept on going.
"I soon found out that depending on one farm alone to supply hotels, restaurants and the local market was not good enough for continuous supply.
"You can have floods, cyclone and disease so that's why I started looking for other good farmers, especially farmers who were having difficulties with cane farming in Tavua, Lautoka and Rakiraki areas to supply vegetables to me for an additional source of income.
"I used to be a director on the Cane Growers Board and I travelled to these areas and knew the farmers very well. I worked with the Department of Agriculture officers in those areas to rope those farmers into vegetable farming so that I can get more and better produce."
Kamlesh said initially, local markets were meant for rejected produce after exporters had taken their share of quality produce. His aim was to change that.
"This is no longer the case. I am one of the premium grade suppliers in the local market.
"Go to my stall; customers are saying that it is one of the best stalls in Nadi."
Once he had his market stall running, Kamlesh started working with local hotels, restaurants, yachts and even liaising with outer islands.
"Now we supply the local market, we supply the local hotels; we supply the yachts and super yachts.
"Apart from supplying to the mainland, we are also providing some hotels in the Mamanucas and the Yasawas with fresh produce."
He moves about two tonnes of bananas from Tailevu, Sigatoka Valley and a few from Nagado in Nadi every week.
"Weekly, we are doing about 300 dozens of pineapples which calculates to about three tonnes of pineapples, about two tonnes of watermelons, about half a tonne of pumpkin, 200 to 300 kg of capsicum; about 200 to 300 kg of zucchini although we are having problems with this crop now.
"When passion fruit is in season, we do about 300-400 kg of passion fruit every week, about 100 kg of lettuce we can do a bit more but then we will have problems with our supply.
"We do not want to do one week then cannot supply the following week."
He also buys 200kg of cucumbers and rock melons weekly, about two tonnes of tomatoes, 50kg of cauliflower and 20-30 kg of broccoli.
Broccoli is supplied only to one major resort and being a delicate crop, should go straight into cool storage once harvested for optimum quality.
Kamlesh said while there's a lot more he could do, he is constrained by cash flow, storage space and at times, short supply. One of the hallmarks of Kamlesh's good business sense is his foresight to nurture partnerships with stakeholders that will help in moving his business forward.
"As my market grew and the encouragement of the local Department of Agriculture (DOA) officials in Nadi, I bought a brand new cooler truck worth $48,000 to transport produce from the farm to my storeroom in Nadi where I also have my old storage coolers," he said.
"Then DOA stepped in with an assistance worth $57,000 that included a $30,000 cooler room, $7000 for a three-phase power supply and $20,000 was invested in putting up a shed over the cool room.
"With the cool storage facility, I have a cool room where produce from the farms can be stored to maintain their farm fresh quality before they are delivered to my customers." Kamlesh gets most of his produce from selected farmers up in the Nausori Highland, Nadarivatu, Sigatoka Valley and from Tavua. But there are always exceptions to the rule. Unlike some farm produce distributors, Farm Boy is 100 per cent local.
