Why Our Pig Farm Failed After 19 Months: Six Lessons from a Business That Looked Good on Paper

 By Marc Reflects

In brief

•         Three of us started EBM Farm, a pig farm, in June 2022 and closed it in January 2024.

•         The herd grew from 2 pigs to 63 at its peak, and we spent about RWF 11 million in total, but the farm never covered its own running costs.

•         The six lessons below cover feasibility, cash flow, partners, supervision, location, and facing problems early.

•         These are lessons from one experience, not universal rules

In January 2024, we closed EBM Farm, our pig farm. Nineteen months earlier, in June 2022, three of us had started it with two adult female pigs, one Duroc and one Pietrain, a bank loan, and an idea we had carried since our university days in 2007.

On paper, it made sense. We believed there was demand for pork in Rwanda and neighboring countries, and we had what looked like the right ingredients. One partner provided financing through a bank loan, another contributed land, and I took responsibility for management. My role was to run the entire farm: hiring workers and handling their contracts, overseeing the pigs' health, managing payments, and consolidating reports.

At first, the farm grew. By the beginning of January 2023, about six months after we started, we had 16 pigs. At its peak, in December 2023, the herd reached 63. We began talking about expanding. But more pigs did not mean a sustainable business.

EBM Farm began in June 2022 with two adult female pigs. We had a plan to grow the farm, but we had not fully assessed what it would take to make the business sustainable. 

The Numbers That Decided Everything

The farm employed four people: a night security guard, a worker who fed the pigs, an operations manager, and a part-time veterinary service provider. Wages came to approximately RWF 170,000 per month. Once we added feed, medicines, insemination, water, electricity, and other expenses, our total monthly operating costs reached about RWF 600,000.

 

Monthly expense	Approximate amount (RWF)
Wages for four people	170,000
Feed, medicines, insemination, water, electricity, and other costs	430,000
Total monthly operating costs	600,000

Between June 2022 and January 2024, we spent approximately RWF 11 million on the farm in total, including money from the bank loan. The farm never reached the point where its income covered its operating costs. Financial pressure grew, operational problems appeared, and we struggled to keep going until we closed in January 2024.

I am sharing this experience because I believe it can help someone considering starting a business. I have not named any individuals, and I have tried to describe events fairly and without blame.

1. Study the Business Before You Invest, Then Test It Small

The most important lesson is that an idea can look promising on paper and still be difficult to sustain in practice. We believed in pig farming. We bought improved-breed pigs, built the operation, and watched the herd grow from two pigs to 16 in six months and then to 63 at its peak. But growing the herd was only one part of running a farm. We also had to pay for feed, veterinary care, medicines, breeding, labour, and utilities.

Feed was one of our biggest financial pressures. Pigs consume agricultural products such as maize and soybean, which are also used for other purposes. When the prices of the ingredients we needed rose, our feed costs increased. We had little control over those price changes.

Although we started with only two pigs, our operating costs were not small. We had a bank loan to repay and a team of four to pay long before the herd was large enough to support them.

We also failed to conduct a proper feasibility study. We did not visit farmers running similar projects. Instead, we relied on our veterinary experience and information we found on social media, including YouTube. Veterinary knowledge helped us understand how to raise pigs, but it could not tell us whether the business would be financially sustainable.

Before starting a similar project today, I would visit farmers already operating comparable businesses and ask about the difficulties they faced, not just their successes.

A feasibility study should cover four areas:

• The market: Who will buy the products, at what price, in what quantities, and who are the competitors?
• The costs: What will animals, feed at each stage of growth, veterinary care, labour, utilities, and other expenses cost? What happens if feed prices rise or animals grow more slowly than expected?
• The cash flow: How long might it take before the business generates meaningful revenue, and how much working capital will it need until then?
• The risks: What are the most likely reasons the business could fail, and how much money could be lost in an unfavourable scenario?

Before investing, prepare a basic financial forecast showing expected revenue, operating costs, and the cash required before the business can sustain itself. Test your assumptions against information from existing businesses and consider what would happen if sales fell short or expenses increased.

The same principle applies to a shop, a restaurant, or a digital business.

The lesson: Do not invest simply because an idea looks profitable or someone else appears to be succeeding in the same field. Test your assumptions on a small scale, keeping both the initial investment and ongoing costs manageable. A feasibility study should help you decide whether to invest, not justify a decision you have already made.

As the herd grew, so did our financial responsibilities. We had focused on raising more pigs before fully understanding the costs and conditions required for a sustainable operation

3. Choose Partners Carefully, and Put Everything in Writing

Working with others can make a business possible. One person may have money, another land, and another time or specialised skills. But bringing resources together is not enough. Partners also need a shared understanding of the business, their responsibilities, and what they expect to achieve.

We entered the business with enthusiasm and good intentions, but over time we found that we had different expectations. We disagreed about responsibilities, contributions, management, and the future of the project. We also disagreed about the land and the terms under which the business used it.

Looking back, I would document land-use arrangements, ownership rights, and procedures for resolving disputes before operations begin.

Before entering a partnership, I would ask:

• Do we share the same vision and priorities?
• What exactly will each person contribute: money, land, equipment, time, or expertise?
• How will we make important decisions about spending, hiring, expansion, and selling assets?
• What happens if a partner cannot fulfil their responsibilities?
• How will disagreements be resolved, and how can someone leave the business?

These questions may feel uncomfortable when everyone is excited about a new idea. However, discussing them early can prevent serious disagreements later.

The lesson: Do not rely on friendship, enthusiasm, or verbal promises alone. Put the partnership agreement in writing, including contributions, duties, decision-making authority, ownership rights, and exit arrangements. A smaller team with clear responsibilities can be easier to manage than a larger group with different expectations.

The goal is not to distrust everyone. It is to build a structure that protects both the business and the people involved.

4. Do Not Run a Business on Remote Reports Alone

Livestock farming is a hands-on business. Our farm was in a rural area. Two of the three partners, including me, lived in Kigali, while the third lived in a town in a nearby province, close to the project.

As the manager, I visited the farm only about twice a year. Everything else depended on reports, photographs, and videos from the people on site. Many of our decisions therefore rested on information we could not easily verify.

Receiving information is not the same as verifying it.

We also asked a friend who lived near the farm to visit at least three times a week and report to us. That arrangement was not followed consistently until the pigs began dying, one after another. Without a checklist, a schedule we monitored, or consistent follow-up, the system depended too heavily on goodwill.

When piglets began dying, we expected urgent veterinary attention, but we could not always confirm what had been done or how quickly. Part of the problem was structural. Someone on site may hesitate to report a problem if doing so could create conflict with a colleague or service provider. When problems are not reported promptly, owners lose the opportunity to act in time.

When we began producing our own feed, the same weakness appeared in another form. We could not reliably reconcile the quantity produced with the quantity consumed. In a small operation without effective stock control, losses caused by waste, miscounting, or theft can go unnoticed.

These experiences exposed weaknesses in our supervision and accountability systems, including my own management. They taught me that trusting people should not mean operating without checks.

My rule of thumb now is that a hands-on business such as livestock farming requires regular, direct supervision by an owner or a trusted person with clear responsibility and a genuine stake in the operation. By that standard, visiting twice a year was far too little.

If regular supervision is not possible, I would not start such a business until a reliable person and an effective monitoring system were in place.

A practical monitoring system should include:

• Daily records: Track production, feed use, animal health, sales, purchases, and losses.
• Regular stock counts: Compare feed produced or purchased with feed consumed and the number of animals.
• Financial records: Require receipts and supporting documents for significant expenses.
• Scheduled visits: Arrange on-site visits by a partner or supervisor using a short checklist, supplemented by occasional unannounced inspections.
• Emergency procedures: Establish when a veterinarian must be called and how treatment and visits should be recorded.
• Direct reporting: Give workers a way to report problems to the owners without relying on a single intermediary.
• Prompt investigation: Investigate discrepancies fairly and take corrective action when needed.

Photographs, videos, and phone calls can help, but they should support a monitoring system, not replace it.

The lesson: If you cannot be present, build a reliable system that allows you to verify what is happening. Accountability is not an expression of distrust; it is part of responsible management.

5. Judge the Location by Its Practical Risks

Choosing a location is not just about finding available land where you can start cheaply. It affects access to customers, suppliers, workers, transport, security, and day-to-day supervision.

Location can also affect relationships. When you run a project in or near your home area, where many people know you, familiarity can be an advantage, but it can also complicate business decisions. People may see the business as an opportunity, expectations can blur the line between business and personal relationships, and not everyone involved will necessarily share the owners' interests.

These challenges do not occur everywhere. They depend on the location, the people involved, and how the business is managed. As the saying goes, a prophet is not honoured in his own town.

In our case, we struggled to monitor how resources were used and to ensure that everyone involved understood and respected the interests of the business. We also became concerned that some resources might not have been used exclusively for the farm. Our monitoring arrangements made it difficult to establish a clear picture of what was happening.

A business close to home can create jobs, serve the community, and support local development. I do not believe that working near home is a mistake in itself. If I started again, however, I would assess the location more carefully and seriously consider a site outside my home area if it offered better conditions for operating the business.

I would still like to contribute to the development of my native place. But a business location must be judged by whether the operation can succeed, not by sentiment alone.

Before choosing a site, ask:

• Can we supervise the business regularly?
• Is the location secure, and can equipment, products, and supplies be accounted for?
• Are reliable workers and service providers, including a veterinarian where needed, available?
• Can suppliers and customers reach the site?
• Are transport and other operating costs manageable?
• How might relationships with neighbours, local workers, and other community members affect the business?

The lesson: Choose a location based on the practical needs of the business, not emotion or convenience alone. Consider supervision, security, costs, access, and the relationships that may affect day-to-day operations.

6. Face Problems Early and Honestly

A business needs both a constructive mindset and an honest view of reality. Our decline came quickly. From December 2023, newly born piglets began dying in large numbers from diarrhoea despite the treatment they received. Then the breeding boar we had bought to reduce our high insemination costs was also found dead. By January 2024, almost all the pigs had died except a few, and we decided to close the farm.

EBM Farm closed in January 2024, after 19 months of operation. The experience left us with lessons about planning, cash flow, supervision, and partnership agreements.

It was discouraging to watch a project fall apart after so much effort and money.

I believe that words carry power. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), and I have seen how repeated words can influence how people think and act.

During those months, someone on the team often said that the project would never give a return. I cannot prove that those words or anyone's dreams caused what happened, and I do not claim they did. Piglet diarrhoea and the death of a breeding animal have practical causes that require proper investigation, including veterinary assessment, hygiene, feeding, housing, and disease prevention.

Looking back, I notice something else. The doubts were not baseless: the farm was not covering its costs. The mistake was not that someone spoke about the problem. It was that we did not turn our concerns into action. We did not sit down, identify what was going wrong, and agree on what needed to change.

A constructive attitude matters, but it should not prevent people from raising legitimate concerns. When someone identifies a problem, the response should be to examine the evidence and decide what action is needed.

Ask:

• What exactly is going wrong, and what evidence do we have?
• What needs attention immediately?
• What can we change, and how will we know whether the change is working?
• At what point should we reconsider the project or stop investing more money?

The lesson: Take problems seriously when they first appear. Do not dismiss honest warnings as negativity, and do not confuse confidence with evidence. Identify the causes, agree on corrective action, and monitor whether the changes work.

A positive attitude is useful when it supports responsible action. It becomes dangerous when it replaces clear thinking.

Final Thoughts

Our pig farm began with an idea that took many years to become reality. We invested approximately RWF 11 million, built an operation, and watched the herd grow from two pigs to 63. But we could not sustain the business through the challenges we faced.

I do not share this experience to discourage anyone from starting a business or investing in agriculture. I share it because failure can teach lessons that enthusiasm alone cannot.

A promising market does not guarantee a profitable business. A growing herd does not guarantee healthy cash flow. A partnership does not succeed simply because its members share an idea. And good intentions on site do not replace records, supervision, and accountability.

Looking back, I can identify mistakes of my own. As the manager, I ran the farm from Kigali and visited it only about twice a year. We started without a proper feasibility study and without visiting comparable farms. We relied on our veterinary experience and information we had found on YouTube, without adequately testing whether the business could sustain itself.

If I started again, I would not run a hands-on business that I could not oversee closely or monitor through a reliable system.

The Six Lessons in Brief

1. Study the business before investing. Test your assumptions on a small scale.
2. Calculate the money needed to survive. Plan for operating costs and delays, not just startup expenses.
3. Choose partners carefully. Put responsibilities, contributions, and agreements in writing.
4. Build reliable supervision. Do not depend on reports without verification.
5. Assess the location practically. Consider security, access, costs, relationships, and supervision.
6. Face problems early and honestly. Turn concerns into evidence-based action before the situation deteriorates.

I cannot change the outcome of EBM Farm, but I can use the experience to make better decisions and share what I learned with others.

An idea may deserve a chance, but it also deserves to be tested against reality.

Have you started a business, or are you thinking about starting one? Which of these lessons do you find most important? I would like to hear your experience in the comments.

By Ndacyayisaba Marc