Timing is the silent partner of success. Sometimes, entrepreneurs can possess the right product but at the wrong time. Shaun Cairns, founder and CEO of Seed 2 Harvest, would only learn this lesson ten years after launching his business idea, which ultimately failed.
A week before South Africa’s 21-day Covid lockdown announcement, Cairns was on the verge of signing a purchase agreement that would have made him the owner of a piece of land. He felt optimistic about his farming future. However, as the storm clouds gathered, his expansion plans came to an abrupt halt.
“At first, the lockdown was lekker (nice). It was like a holiday, and I could watch movies every day,” he laughs.
Cairns didn’t mind the downtime. He had been working hard delivering farm-fresh spinach, table salary, and curly kale to Pick n Pay, Spar, and Kuai in the Western Cape.
“After month two with no more movies to watch, I asked myself, what now? Everything fell flat, and there was uncertainty like nobody’s business.”
The rebirth of an idea
The land purchase deal slipped through his fingers, and Cairns was forced to innovate. He then picked up on a trend: people were growing their own vegetables. With the world turning to home gardening amidst the pandemic, Cairns saw it as an opportunity to revive his cutting-edge idea, which had failed almost a decade ago.
“About ten years ago, we created a concept called the organic garden starter kit but the idea was premature. It wasn’t the right time for the product.
“I realised that if we re-engineered it now, we could launch it during Covid because people want to start growing at households.”
Using the last bit of money he had left, Cairns rebranded his organic food garden starter kit and started promoting it on Facebook and YouTube. The garden in a box was an instant hit and was distributed throughout Mzansi that year.
“Organisations like the Afrikaans Language and Culture Association (ATKV) gave us the opportunity to roll out in the whole country, in all of their districts.
“When we piloted the kit, we measured its success after six months. It was 95% successful. The other five percent was due to weather and bad climate,” he recalls.
Today, Seed To Harvest has clients from all over the country and is establishing a footprint in other parts of Africa.
“You’ve got to discern the times and the seasons of when you can launch and when you can’t,” he says. “The product never launched, and we focused on agricultural training.”
Fertiliser becomes cash cow
The second year brought an opportunity to manufacture their organic fertiliser called Bio Boost. They also started distributing organic inputs like their iBatech product.
“They have become our key products. It only takes three litres of Bio Boost to feed one hectare. It is very affordable and cost-effective.
“It has really become our money-spinner and opened opportunities for us. This is what farmers are looking for right now.”
Shaun says in the last couple of years there has been an explosion of fertiliser products, however, there is no silver bullet.
“If there was a silver bullet, that person would be a billionaire by now. The focus has, however, shifted from crop protection to soil fertility. We need to feed the soil with organic matter and not chemicals because a mineral deficiency in a human’s body cannot be permanently fixed with supplements; it can only be fixed by changing your diet and balancing your gut bacteria. This is what our products do.
“It builds soil structure. Our products are crutches. You will use them to not use them in the future.
“What I like about our products is that within seven to 14 days you will see healthier crops, more microbial activity, an increase in biomass, and the soil will hold more water,” he says.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
The challenges Shaun faced were three-fold. The first was the price factor and being able to identify the right price. “There’s a certain price that the market will determine. There’s a perceived value, and so the price was the problem.”
He also had issues with the size of the box and had to re-engineer the box three times. At first, the box was for 60 square metres, then 40, and eventually 20 square metres.
“We did some research on the market that we wanted to target and realised that the average household garden is no more than 20 square metres.
Another challenge was brand awareness and trust.
“People needed to trust that our product works. We’ve gotten past that hurdle where people are now buying our product without asking questions because they see the results and testimonies of people.”
Getting investors to finance the concept was another issue. “We had to self-fund. We sold a few here and there, and we would reinvest that money. It was one of the hardest things to do but we are now seeing the rewards in the end.”
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Markets in Congo and Zambia
Seed 2 Harvest also trains community gardeners and small-scale farmers. Partnering with various organisations, they roll out urban food gardens in various parts of the country.
“We are now focused on household food security, working with urban black farmers supplying them with organic fertilisers and inputs.
Cairns says Seed To Harvest has had the opportunity to expand into Lesotho. They had a presence in Namibia but experienced some challenges.
“We are going into Zambia and the Congo as well. We see the move across Africa that people want to go organic, so we are stepping into that opportunity now.
“We at Seed To Harvest have made a pledge to walk the journey with our clients from seed to harvest, and that is where our slogan comes from.
“As part of our social responsibility, we give kits away for free, but a lot of our work is donor-dependent. We look for donors to fund us,” he says.
Apart from being donor-funded, they also sell directly to end-users.
“Organic agriculture is not product-driven but systems-driven. As organic farmers, we need to create the system; thereafter, all you need to do is manage the system,” explains Cairns.
“Mainstream agriculture teaches us that every season you need this product or that. When you look at nature, you don’t see people raking and hosing or putting fertiliser, yet they are healthy. Nature has a way of looking after itself, and nature manages the system.”
Doing his bit for the community
Cairns says when he trades this world for another, he would like to be remembered for being someone who brought hope to communities through agriculture.
“There was a lady who brought tears to my eyes when she said that she and her daughter reconciled after five years of not talking to each other after something I said during a gardening training session she attended.
“Knowing that I’ve used agriculture as a vehicle to impact people’s lives, not just on a physical level but on an emotional and spiritual level, is enough for me.”
He believes that organic agriculture will feed the world and would like to see every vacant space possible adorned with food gardens. “In the meantime, I will do my bit to help get us there.”
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