African Entrepreneurship Record

Hemers continued, "To improve the taste of food, you don't have to follow the conventional routine. For example, some people like sweet tofu pudding, some like salty, and some like spicy. There is a big market for all kinds of tastes, but not many people have paid attention to it in the past. This is an opportunity for our city's food processing companies."

"Take the flour mill as an example. We develop biscuit factories based on the flour mill. In order to produce more flavors of biscuits, the demand for sugar, salt, dried fruits and other things will naturally increase. Then I can develop a raw material supply factory on this basis."

Randall and others thought carefully about the scene described by Hemers and had to admit that it made sense.

Randall said: "We can make a preliminary trial. If the effect is significant, we can develop supporting industries step by step."

Hemers: "I can't say about other places, but there is absolutely no problem in the entire region. Of course, if it is just to meet the needs of the local people, the scale does not need to be too large. It is enough to build small and medium-sized factories."

This is actually to establish local food processing enterprises, which is also quite common in East Africa. However, the categories produced by East African food processing enterprises are too single at this stage, and Iringa City intends to build the city's food industry from the perspective of meeting different "needs".

Hemers went on to say: "The food processing industry is just a fairly basic industry. We can make full use of our city's wheat to realize the layout of related industries."

"In fact, there is a resource in East Africa that has been neglected for a long time. If it can be utilized, I think our city's light industry will definitely be vigorously developed."

Hemers did not keep the secret. He said directly: "And this resource is labor. At the beginning of this century, our country's population has reached more than 80 million. East Africa is actually not too short of population. Utilizing these labor resources and developing processing and manufacturing industries can make up for some of our city's disadvantages."

"For example, the textile industry does not necessarily have to be established near cotton-producing areas. Nairobi, Bulawayo, Gezira, and Mogadishu are typical support areas. A textile city developed from cotton planting. "

"However, as textile powerhouses, Germany and the United Kingdom rely almost entirely on imports for cotton. The cotton textile industry in New Frankfurt, East Africa, is also realized by relying on railway transportation hubs. "

"This shows that the development of the cotton textile industry is indeed inseparable from raw materials, but it does not necessarily have to be close to the production area. The cotton textile industry is a typical labor-intensive industry, and labor and market factors have a great impact on the cotton textile industry. "

"Take Germany as an example. Germany has a very high population density, a large labor force, and a broad market. These are prerequisites for the development of Germany's cotton textile industry. "

Germany's area is less than one twentieth of East Africa, but its population is as high as nearly 50 million, close to half of East Africa, so even for East Africa, Germany is a full-fledged populous country.

And the three characteristics of large population, developed industry, and high income determine that the domestic market of Germany's textile industry is broad, and the abundant labor force population provides convenient conditions for Germany to develop the textile industry. It can be said that compared with East Africa, Germany has more favorable conditions for the development of the textile industry except cotton planting.

In terms of labor, technology, capital, and market, Germany has far more advantages than East Africa. In addition to its own market, the consumption level of neighboring countries is very strong, and German textiles are also very popular in the international market.

"From this, we can see that our Iringa City is not without the conditions for developing the textile industry. Although our city is not a major cotton producing area, it is not far from the cotton producing areas of Lake Malawi and Lake Solon Province."

"As for labor, the urbanization level is now improving, and the agricultural population is moving to cities, so it is not a problem for us."

Randall interrupted: "But the cotton textile industry in other cities is also developing well. How can we compete with those state-owned factories?"

Hermes explained: "This involves the demand I mentioned before, which can also be understood as the market."

"The cotton textile industry is a fairly large industrial category, involving many industries, and whether it can create value, it is ultimately necessary to sell the products. The geographical location of our city and the situation of domestic cotton textile products are destined to have great potential in the domestic market."

"East Africa has developed for more than ten years, but our country has always had a serious problem, that is, the category of industrial products is single and cannot meet the needs of everyone. , just like the people who read Hamlet, there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people, and everyone's aesthetics are different. "

"And the downstream end products of the cotton textile industry, such as clothing and bedding, are most likely to reflect this result. There are few types of clothing in East Africa, which determines that the domestic people have few choices, but does less choice mean less demand? The fact is just the opposite. People don't want to choose, but they have no choice. "

"Take my daughter as an example. Last week, my eldest daughter bought a skirt produced in Dodoma City, but this skirt is ugly, so with the help of her mother, she sewed a lot of patterns on the skirt. "

"Then this skirt is ugly, why does my eldest daughter still buy it? Because she thinks that there is no ugliest skirt in state-owned stores, only uglier. Of course, my daughter's aesthetics may be different from others, but is this a new demand? If there is a skirt that my daughter likes on the market, she doesn't need to make changes to the skirt she bought. "

"So when our city develops light industrial products, it should provide more diversified products based on the needs of its people, so that market sales will not be a problem."

"We don't necessarily have to develop the upstream cotton textile industry. We can fully develop our efforts in end-use industries such as ready-made garments, tablecloths, curtains, etc. that require fabrics."

"Raw materials can be imported from other cities, and we are processing and improving them according to market demand. This creates a perfect closed loop and drives the development of the city's light industry."

"This is also reflected in other industries. For example, in the ceramic manufacturing industry, we can win the market through innovation and create good-looking products. We do not necessarily have to judge the quality of the product by whether it is resistant to falling or whether the materials are solid."

Hermes' words can be said to be a lesson to the government officials of Iringa City. Industrial development must ultimately sell products, and if you want to sell products, you must ultimately look at the needs of customers, and this demand does not It must be quality and price, but it may also differ due to personal aesthetics.

Mayor Randall said happily: "Hermes' words can be said to be enlightening to me. Next, our city's industrial investment must follow this idea. As Hermes said, only the people who produce Needed commodities are the secret to our city’s industrial development.”

"And through this form, we can also form differentiated competition with other cities and accelerate the development of our city's industry. Our city's development in heavy industry is indeed easily restricted, including talent, education, mineral resources, transportation, industrial base, etc. , and light industry is our magic weapon to not fall behind other cities, and the development of light industry must pay more attention to market demand. "

"Our city is not a coastal area, so we must pay more attention to the domestic market, use the domestic market as the foundation, vigorously develop the food processing industry and other labor-intensive industries, provide our country with more light industrial product categories, and meet the diversified needs of society."

In the final analysis, if a town like Iringa wants to make a breakthrough in the industrialization stage, it must be based on light industry. From a global perspective, light industry occupies a dominant position, and East Africa is not a strong country in light industry. Therefore, those cities that can seize the opportunity at this stage can It can occupy a place in the East African industrial system through light industry, even surpassing some heavy industry cities.