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Rosemary, basil or mint: choose from buyer evidence
Kenya-first insights, practical and grounded.
Published 29/10/2026 - 4 min read
Rosemary, basil or mint: choose from buyer evidence
Count buyers and pack sizes before planting. The proposed business is a dependable weekly delivery, and the first task is to establish what your intended buyers actually order.
Choose a route before pricing anything
Keep four routes separate: fresh bunched herbs, potted or living herbs, dried herbs and contract export. Fresh supply to a local weekly round is this kit's main working route. Potted herbs have their own containers, growing and display costs. Dried herbs require a separate processing, labelling and food-product enquiry. Contract export brings a different volume and compliance discussion. Do not put all four routes into one cost per kilogram.
For the pilot, write a route statement: herb, product form, intended buyer type, pack definition, delivery point and payment basis. Add the person responsible for checking each unknown. If a customer changes the form, open a separate route sheet rather than editing the old quotation until its meaning is lost. Preserve the original reply and the revised offer together.
An optional route is not a rescue price for unsold fresh stock. Before assigning value to surplus, obtain a specification and check whether that material is suitable for the proposed use. In the absence of a verified outlet, give surplus no assumed sales receipt. This is a planning discipline, not a claim that every rejected pack can become another product.
Build the cut-by-cut availability calendar
Cut Schedule is the heart of the workbook. Use one row for one herb, plot and proposed cut. Enter the estimated cut date and the handling delay you intend to allow before availability. The sheet calculates an expected availability date, then compares that cut's expected saleable packs with committed packs. A positive balance flags a possible glut; a negative balance flags a gap. Neither result is a yield prediction.
Enter all proposed cuts separately, including later cuts of the same plot. Do not apply an automatic harvest interval: none is established in the evidence. Use your own records to propose the next date, and distinguish expected quantities from recorded cuts. Put the evidence reference beside every estimate. If a date or quantity is absent, the comparison remains needs input.
Review the rows by availability date and herb before accepting a new order. A surplus of mint cannot automatically fill a basil shortage. Where two cuts feed the same delivery round, allocate the packs explicitly and check that you have not promised the same stock twice. Update the schedule after buyer changes and actual grading, then contact the buyer yourself if a commitment needs renegotiation.
Turn harvested weight into saleable packs
Yield & Grading works in saleable bunches or packs. Record the harvest lot, herb, harvested kilograms, rejects, bunch or pack weight in grams and the number of containers or bunches you can actually prepare. It calculates retained kilograms and whole saleable packs, limited by your entered packing capacity. An incomplete bunch weight or pack count blocks the pack result. This prevents kilograms from masquerading as confirmed orders.
Weigh and grade a recorded pilot lot using the buyer's agreed specification. Keep the weighing method, date and person responsible in the evidence note. A retained-weight estimate is not a packing record until you have checked what actually fits the unit. Record any weight left over after whole packs are formed. Do not promise a fractional bunch because a formula produces a decimal.
Keep rejection reasons separate from unsold stock. Rejected material and saleable material without an order answer different management questions. Neither automatically earns revenue. Link the retained packs to a cut ID and a round ID, and record the quantity returned from the round. Repeated records can support your own later estimates; this guide asserts no yield per area or season.
Plan your next step
Use The Culinary Herb Venture Kit for the cut calendar, buyer-round costing and editable evidence fields. The full kit costs KSh 999. No buyer, exporter or agency was contacted in producing it. No herb price in it is a market price or a farm-gate price.
Last verified: 29 October 2026.
Sources
- [S2] KS 1758:2016 Horticulture Industry Code of Practice: https://ks1758.afa.go.ke/
- [S3] Horticultural Crops Directorate service hub and traceability: https://afa.go.ke/horticultural-crops-directorate-service-hub/
- [S8] Approved products, uses and safety directions: https://www.pcpb.go.ke/
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