 Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Private Property Farming Podcast. My name is Zimbabwe Linwokko and I'm your host, as always, every Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8pm. Today we're speaking about farming stockfiles and we're speaking to a serial entrepreneur, Nicholas Manique, who started his farming stockfile and we want to know what exactly does the stockfile focus on and how many members does it currently have. And I suppose if you're looking to go into farming, I think the stockfile approach is a method to aid you and ease you, assist you rather with getting some capital or startup capital to start your farming enterprise. So if you have any questions for Nicholas, please feel free to comment wherever you're watching us from. And again, if you missed this conversation, you can catch it on YouTube on our Farming Podcast playlist under the Private Property Farming YouTube channel. So let's get straight into it. Nicholas, how are you doing? Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thanks to you and the team and to the listeners or to the viewers out there. It's a lovely and a pleasure to be talking to you about a topic that is really close to my heart. Yeah. No, thank you for making the time and obviously starting your business. But I know before we move into the farming stockfiles or our topic of discussion today, you're a serial entrepreneur. So tell us about other business interests that you're currently doing and why you decided to start an enterprise within the agricultural sector. So I'm in the music business or let's say entertainment. I'm the music exec or the music PR. I've worked with a panel of artists to where I was also a PR manager for ambitious entertainment. I also have my PR and communication company. Not only that, but also my many property investors. The way we have the stock, we have the property stock fell. We invest in student accommodation and we build a backyard, a lower cost housing as well in townships. So yes, there are also a couple of other businesses that I do in other industries. But over the general in everything we do is that every day, obviously every now and then you need a past hour, this man or whatever. But the good thing is that in our daily lives, we need a farmer three times. We need to eat three times in a day. And with the population growing dramatically. So I mean, we moved from around 50. We were estimated to be around 53 million in the country. And it is said now it has increased to roughly to be from 59 to 60 million. So what does that tells you? It tells you that the demand for food, it will always be there. The demand is crazy. I mean, we don't produce enough chicken or eggs. So obviously with that, I always wanted to be a farmer because my grandfather was a farmer. He was well known in the community. He had a lot of cows, chickens and everything. And he had a huge land. So it was something that I always wanted to do. But obviously with the times where we live in most of our youth, we want to be on TV, we want to wear suits, we want jobs that are on spotlights. There's glamour. No one wants to be in the farm. And that's where the real thing is, we want to eat every day. So I saw an opportunity, where I looked at the black farmers land, but they don't have capital. On the other hand, you have people who want to venture into farming where they have capital, but they don't have the skills of farming. That's where the concept came of us saying, look, let's start the stock of farming. The reason we didn't want to specify to say this is all because our focus is its livestock and also we're looking at venturing into crops. But the crops obviously, the main thing we want to focus on in the future is your hydrohydronic farming, which I think you are also part of because obviously these are advantages of anything that you're doing. So I get that my friends, I'm like, look, we are in a big city. What we can see is that we want to be in farming and we don't have a farm around. I can't be partner with other farmers who are struggling financially. We all come together and they have the skill, we have money. They come together, we put the money, we invest in different assets, which could be poultry, farming, pig airy, or any other product that we would like to sell to the market. That's how the concept started by bridging that gap. And so far we've been progressing. So far we have close to 50 members. And now obviously there's a lot of people from different other provinces who say, look, I want to join you guys. I like the concept and it makes sense to me because I don't have time, but I'm a live farmer, but I don't have time to be there in the farm. So what we do is as members, we contribute money collectively. We take the money with our plant farm where we say, okay, look, we would like to focus on poultry for now because it's something that is easy to enter, but it's not easy as it looks. So we take the money, we buy equipment, we buy everything. Now because they have time, they have the skills, probably they've done this before, and then they will look after the chicks feed, make it sure that everything goes accordingly. Once we see that the chicks have grown now to be matured assets, we take it, we sell it to the market, which obviously we sell it to the public. We are selling it to a restaurant. There's also a contractor that we have with another food franchise retail store that is obviously focusing in the classes. So we're supplying our chicken to them. You know, they tell us the specs that we need at least 1.3 kg to 1.3. There's a certain way we need to cut it so we supply them, but obviously also we're looking at expanding into retail now, which is something that always been there. We want to form our own mixed portion brand that will compete with the likes of your rainbow, your Goldie, because Goldie is a global company which we are, you know, all the chicken, they come from outside the country. So we want to say, look, let's have our own brand that will compete with them, which we have the Mzansi meat, whereas under Mzansi meat, we having Mzansi meat is pushing, where the primary product there is chicken, you know, gizzards, feet and all those things. That's some of the product that we'll be selling to the market. So obviously there are opportunities that are being open amongst logistics. Other guys, we say, look, there are opportunities here because now we will have to transport everything that we're doing from the farm or from the warehouse, obviously to the client. So that's how the concept started, actually, the farming, you know, the stock for farming, because when you think of farming, it takes a lot of money and a lot of skills. Alone, it might be tough, but collectively, it might be easy because you are not bringing your own money. We are all coming together to raise capital and whatever we feel like now, it's out there in the market. We can be able to say, okay, let's venture into these and supply the market. So that's how we started basically. Great. So Nicholas, you mentioned that you have 15 members right now within the stockfile and you've already identified the commodity, which is chicken in this perspective. And furthermore, it's like you're providing access to finance and markets for the farmer. So tell us a little bit more around the member's contribution. What's the minimum amount that a member can contribute into the stockfile and how does the farmer then repay back the amount invested in their business? So, yes. So we have a draining fee and obviously, there's a monthly contribution that, you know, a member is contributing, which we have a draining fee of like, which is 500 once a month. And then monthly, we contribute 1500, which we use the 500 obviously for, you know, to maintain and also to make sure that we feed. So how we have structured our stockfile farming. The farmer actually doesn't really have to repay us in the long run. So what we do is that we take the capital and we say, look, we want to do 1345. We buy the equipment. We buy everything with the farmer. We are hands-on. So it's not like give them finance and we say run with the farm without us. We are really hands-on when it comes to what's really happening in the farm so that we also understand how is the process of nurturing and everything. So when it comes to payment, what we negotiate on, we negotiate on a certain percentage. So basically, it's like we are renting the farm because we are paying the farm rent of number one. Secondly, we are paying the farm to look after our assets. So we agree on a small percentage that look in this profit of our sale, each and every chicken that we sell, you're going to get this portion or this percentage. That's our agreement. So each and every farm, our agreement can differ depending on what they do for us. So with the current farmer we are having, for example, we pay rent because our staff is staying in a farm, obviously, which covers electricity and water insecurity, but also we pay a small portion, which is almost 7% to 10% of the revenue that we are doing from that. We pay rent to the farmer so that it's a really small portion here. So we're not really saying, look, we give you 100,000 and do whatever you want. No, we are hands-on. Hands, the deal, it's not with the farmer. The company said, let's have an agreement with the farmer where the farmer will supply us with the chicken. No, the deal we have, it's with us as the stock for farming. Hence, the farmer, when everything is done, we take it and we sell it to the market. So we agree that you're going to get to this percentage. So obviously, he knows what is the need for him. But also, there are farmers that say, look, I have a land. I'm willing to give you the access to the land to utilize it. So when we come in, we will have to provide for security. We'll have to hire staff in that particular farm to make sure that they take care of our assets. When they are there, so they follow the processes of everything to make sure that the chicken grows. So that's what we're basically doing. But obviously, it is something that we have to collectively meet and have an HGM to discuss to say, guys, we want to do one, two, three, four, five. So the members of the investors are not involved in the daily operation of the farm. We have staff, we have management and everyone where we have a process of doing things. But at the end of the day, everything that is happening, we need to go back to our members to say, guys, this is what, this is the report. This is the HGM where we report in details. This is what is really happening in our farm. This is so far how we are selling in terms of supplying out there. This is the agreement that we have. This is how much they're going to pay us. Because remember, as the stock fell farming, it's only now where we are saying we need to register this as a business. We are not a business. We are an association currently. Whereas an association, we can't, because we don't register that we can't trade as a business. So we only use it to gather the finance, to contribute. Once we done, we move the finance into the farmer's account so that we can be able to operate. So now it's when we said, look, we need to register this as a PTY so that we can be able to run as a business so that we can be able to pay sales so that obviously we need to pay the farm costs, the farming costs, which every month we have costs, obviously, that we need to settle. So the profit that will be left, we are planning to pay our members as a dividend. So basically, we are planning to make shareholders, rather than just members. Once they are shareholders, we'll be able that they own a certain percentage of the business. It's like a franchise. You see a franchise, how they do a franchise. So a franchise, you own the franchise, but you don't really own the brand. The brand is controlled by the company that's done it, the franchise. So that's how we package it. So that as a member, as much as you are a member, you are a shareholder, you're not involved in the daily operation of the business, we will run the business. You don't have to worry about being dating and getting, you know, dating. We will do it for you. All you have to do is to come on board, understand how we work, what is it exactly that we're doing, what to expect, obviously in terms of revenue, and then we work with those firms. But we're trying to do workshops and also to have months where all our investors come to the firm, where also they, we are all dressed in like farmers obviously. So we invite different speakers around farming so that they get to understand the industry they're in. Because most people, they just want to invest money and get their money. What really happens, they don't know what's the process of growing those chicks. They don't know that there is a flu season. They don't know that this is how you need to feed. They don't know that there's a certain temperature that you know it needs to be there. They don't know anything. So now we're trying to do a workshop so that they understand what we do on the farm, on the daily basis. They understand and they ask 11 questions that they hardly ask so that they get to understand so that even when we face with challenges, when we explain to them, they understand what we're really talking about. So basically this is just to say, look, get involved. Don't just put money and you don't know what is really happening with your money. And also this is to try to make young people to have more interest in the farming rather than all of us going in the glamour rather than all of us wanting to wear suits and be a corporate hustler or whatever that you do in the corporate. We are saying the youth can get involved. So we're planning or we have programs in place where we are planning to go to all these provinces. While we're going to the provinces, we will have programs where we will deal with the communities to say, guys, you can do this collectively as a community where you can feed or you can have a company where the company can be able to supply your local retailers whether it can be any big retailer that you know. I don't like to mention names, but the big retailers that we know that are out there where we buy on the day. We can sign an agreement to say we will supply this regional rule supply. So if we can have different groups that we are controlling, but we have presence in each and every province, we will be able to know that in this province, this is how many farmers we have partnered with. This is the team we are having, whatever that they do, because this helps them also to have access to the market because we are organizing them. But if they are not well organized, they can't give one farm and not give others. But if you say, no, we are collecting everything that we are supplying, we are supplying the stock of farming, and this is what we do. There won't be any issues about accessing the market. We will be able to access the market. Secondly, we are not depending on government to come and help us because we have investors who are putting money each and every money. But obviously, it's a concept that so far the government has tried to engage with us to say, look, this is a very good initiative that we would like to get involved so that we can teach young people about farming, especially when it comes to lifestyles, livestock and crops as well. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Nicholas. It sounds like you're gradually growing, and I'm glad that you are obviously making use of experts in the industry because farming is quite technical, you know, and bringing new financial models and concepts need to be thoroughly, I suppose, thoroughly looked at especially so that the farmer wins at the end of the day as well as the investor. But for people that have listened to this podcast and our conversation this evening, where can they get in touch with you with regards to the farming stock fell just so that they can get more information in terms of the membership fee. You said it's 500 grand, the monthly payments is 1.5, but then we weren't able to touch base on the return on investment. Does the investor get their money every two months, every six months, or on an annual basis? But I believe that you could have that conversation with the potential investor. So where could people find your information and who are interested in the farming stock fell, both from an investor's aspect as well as from the farmer's side. If you've got any contact details to share or email address, I think our audience will appreciate it. Yeah. Yes. So our website is www.stockfallfarming.co.z. Also you're more than welcome to WhatsApp us or call us on our line which is 071-234-6701 or you can email us info at stockfallfarming.co.z or stockfallfarming.co. One of them we are also available on all social media. We're trying to engage with different farmers and also people who want to be part of this who would like you to come and yes, follow us on social media, be in touch. And as much as we started this, also I would advise do your due diligence, do your research and make sure that you are keeping with everything in the paperwork case of legit ways that you need to know all the right information before you can invest in one because I know someone, someone, someone will see this and be like okay, I'm going to start this and then people are being moved. All I'm saying, do your due diligence, do your research and make sure that you go with the winning team. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time this evening, Nicholas. Have a great evening. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Great. And that was Nicholas Manica who's a serial entrepreneur and he started the farming stock far which he mentioned right now. They've got about 15 members recently started and also they just gradually growing with the expertise of the farmers that they're investing in and they assist you not only with access to finance but markets as well. They help you buy all the capital intensive resources required to start a farm. They said that they're open to I suppose male farmers, female farmers, black, white, young or old I think but it's most importantly just starting a stock file to support farmers within the industry and also most importantly for food security as you would have heard him say today. So if you need to reach out to Nicholas please go on to their website which is www.stockfalfarming.co.za. There are also in social media which you could reach out to them and find out a little bit more about monthly investments return on investment and right now they're currently investing in chicken farming so if you're a chicken farmer that wants to do business with them I presume Nicholas would be the right person to speak to. Thank you so much for joining us this evening on the farming podcast brought to you by Private Property. I will be back on your screens on Thursday at 8 p.m. and so if you missed this conversation please go to our YouTube channel and continue to follow us on social media and maybe put out what topics you'd like to hear from us discussing on the show but that's it for me. I'll see you then. Bye-bye.