Picture: Mustak (m) with his daughter Aleemah Khan (l) checking on their beehives.
Debt-free with assets including property consisting of two
homes, vehicles, and farm machinery amounting to $100k was something Mustak
Khan knew he would not achieve if he remained working at his 8am – 5pm day job.
The 42-year-old of Waiwai, Ba, resigned and took up farming.
14-years later he has achieved what he thought was unattainable – being his own
boss, debt free, running a successful farming business, expanding his home,
with assets – all made possible through farming, specifically pineapple and
honey.
“I started with ten bee hives and 2,000 pineapple suckers and
now I have close to six acres of pineapples and close to 120 bee hives. Farming
enabled me to pay off this land, build my house and buy my car,” he explained.
Mustak makes about $40k net profit annually which he adds, he
re-invests into his farm. He supplies both his pineapples and honey to one of
the major supermarket chains. He sells his honey in bulk at $15/kilo.
Today, Mustak has fully utilized his six-acre land with
pineapple farming and a portion is dedicated to bee-keeping for honey
production. The latter is a family affair with children and wife also having
their own boxes to maintain.
“My wife has her own boxes apart from the 120 boxes and my
children also have their own boxes. I also helped my neighbors’s son who has
his boxes too.”
The Ministry of Agriculture assisted Mustak with land
preparation and provided advisory services including helping him with his Farm Plan
as well as a Business Plan under the Farm Management Program.
The Business Plan supported his application for a COVID-19
government grant from the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism, and Transport
where he was successful in securing $7k to grow his honey production business.
“Everybody needs food. Even if you start off small to planting
for food security, that’s ok. For my kids, I tell them I am not paying for
their tertiary education. Their fees are already in their bank accounts and
that is from the sale made from honey. So whatever they sell from their honey
that goes directly to their bank accounts.”
Mustak is known in his neighborhood as someone who willingly
helps his neighbors when they need it. For instance, he recently lent a helping
hand to one of his neighbors who needed help to harvest his pineapples.
“I have reached out and helped many around Fiji. I am also
involved with the Fiji Beekeepers Association with close to 7,000 members on
Facebook. I was also Treasurer for the last four years.”
He plans to expand his pineapple farm with newly acquired land
outside Ba Town, which he had just bought with his cousin. He has also started
packaging his honey and at the moment his honey is plainly bottled. But he is
looking towards value-adding this process by properly packaging this product.
Further, Mustak had supplied pineapple suckers to the Ministry
early this year when the latter had called for Expressions of Interest in the
provision of planting materials. From this exercise, he bought a new vehicle
which again adds to his growing farm assets.
-Ends-