Zero Star owner Komar Mendonça’s entrepreneurial drive has helped him become the nation’s first local wholesaler to the capital city’s supermarkets.

Komar Mendonça, 31, will never forget how he got started. With money his parents scraped together for what they thought would be his first payment for college, Mendonça purchased some vegetables in his hometown, Hato Builico in Timor-Leste’s highlands, that he hoped to sell for a profit when he arrived for his classes in Dili.

Growing up, he had seen plenty of wholesalers making money selling produce in the local market, and he thought he might be able to do the same for himself. But with only a pile of greens to show for his parent’s hard-earned money, Mendonça wondered if he had made a terrible decision.

In the end, he was able to sell the vegetables, giving him enough money to pay for school and start a business. Mendonça supported himself this way through college and has since become Timor-Leste’s first local wholesaler to Dili’s supermarkets.
“I didn’t have anything when I started. I only had my initiative,” says Mendonça, who officially registered his business in 2006 as Zero Star to reflect its humble origins.
Since he started in 1997, the number of farmers Mendonça buys food from has grown from 20 to 500. Most of his sales are still to traditional markets, but in moving into the more competitive world of filling the shelf space of Dili’s largest supermarkets—where imports dominate—Mendonça’s initiative can only take him so far.

Through targeted business assistance, USAID’s Small Grants Program and Dezenvolve Sétor Privadu (DSP) Project are helping Mendonça take Zero Star to the next level. The Small Grants Program has committed to helping Zero Star build a greenhouse and purchase a cold storage truck that will help improve the diversity, supply, quality and freshness of its produce. DSP is providing the necessary technical training such as vegetables production best practices, accounting, human resource management and other skills that are needed in running a business. DSP also sent Mendonça to attend two weeks of horticulture studies in Bali, where he underwent practical training on packaging, marketing and finance, scheduling delivery for supermarkets, and grading products. DSP also supported one of the Zero Star’s staff to participate in a three month long professional horticulture production training in support of developing the technical and operational skills required to manage a successful greenhouse.

Mendonça says the training has helped him significantly. Zero Star now supplies more than 27 types of fresh produce, including new products to Timor-Leste such as broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, and coriander. As a result of USAID’s coordinated assistance, Zero Star has increased its sales by $ 11,500 over the past three quarters.
He is now focused on steadily increasing the quality of his products even as he strives to meet the supermarkets’ expectations for a higher volume of snow peas, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, potatoes, and other goods.

Despite the challenges, Mendonça is confident that he has the experience and support he needs to succeed. “I’m proud to be the first Timorese to start this horticultural business, especially given the high risk I had to take in the beginning,” he says.

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