Organization Breaks ground for a sh300Million Avocado Oil Processing Plant

 KNA by Moses Wekesa..

Months after opening the Malava Avocado Promotional Center in Kakamega, Sisi Village Produce commenced the construction of a Sh300 million Avocado Oil Processing Plant to be located at the Kaimosi Avocado Model Farm and Nursery.

The Construction is set to begin in November following a groundbreaking ceremony and dedication of the site on Saturday.

The Plant will serve the Lake Region with farmers from Nyanza, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, and other parts of the country expected to benefit from the Avocado Market.

The Construction of the Plant is expected to take between two to three months followed by the installation of the Processing Machine in February. Commissioning will begin thereafter then the factory will start crushing the avocado fruits in March.

The Contracted Construction Company, Vishva, together with an Industrial Engineer John Abisai will source the processing machine from Italy with a capacity to process 5 tons of Avocado Fruits per day.

Speaking to KNA after the groundbreaking ceremony, the Chairman Board of Directors Sisi Village Produce Dr. Julius Muiya says the factory will be an important project that would provide a market for Avocado Farmers in the region.

“We will also create massive employment opportunities for the youth in the factory and also in the office that we are going to set up,” he disclosed.

Dr. Muiya said Western Region people are blessed with good rainfall, sunshine, and land and they can harvest avocado twice a year urging them to invest in the avocado that would be a lifetime earner.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sisi Village Produce Patrick Kisia said they are targeting Hass Avocados which have higher oil content while promising that they would also pick local avocado varieties from farmers.

“Farmers should work hard and plant avocados because if you plant an avocado tree now, in two years you will start harvesting,” he noted.

Kisia said that farmers would be contracted and organized through Cooperatives and access quality seedlings, training, and support from the Avocado Promotional centers and Model Nurseries.

The Promotional centers are spread out including the Kaimosi Model Farm and Nursery, Kimilili Avocado Model Farm and Nursery in Bungoma, Likuyani Model Farm and Nursery in Kakamega, Malava Avocado Promotional Centre in Kakamega, Musikoma Model Farm and Nursery in Bungoma and the Ogalo Model Farm and Nursery.

He said more model Farms will be established to enable farmers to access quality Avocado seedlings, training, and support in planting Avocado trees urging farmers across the region to plant enough fruits to meet the demand of the factory’s 5 tons of avocados per day.

“We are encouraging farmers to crop the Hass Avocado. The Hass Avocado is the preferred export product because it is hardy, the shelf life for the Hass is longer than our traditional avocados,” he added.

Kisia noted that apart from the market provided by the factory, Sisi Village Produce will support farmers to export good export quality fruits through a partnership with Sasini Avocado EPZ Limited.

“Farmers will bring their produce to the cooperatives, any export quality goes out for export then whatever remains of that is now what this factory is looking out for to be able to crush. So we are looking out for non-export quality products, we are also looking out at the traditional avocado fruits which are not exportable which therefore will come in for crushing,” he said.

“For now Sasini Avocado EPZ Limited is our export partner to ensure that the export quality goes out. There is no way a farmer will ever lose, every piece of avocado that is produced is going to be consumed, one in the crushing for oil, and the other for export through our partners,” he added.

The General Manager of Sasini Avocado EPZ Limited, Winnie Ngubwa promised that, since Sisi Village Produce is promoting quality, Sasini will partner with them to export produce from farmers who will produce fruits that meet the export standards.

“I am sure we are going to get good quality fruits here and you can be rest assured that you will get a market for this, together with Sisi Village Produce, we will be able to give you a market for export,” She noted.

She said they have been exporting Avocado fruits for the last 10 years as Sasini with Murang’a County leading in the export yet the Western Region has conducive climatic conditions to support the fruit.

“The export market has been there for long, Murang’a County has been leading yet it does not have the good climatic conditions as western Kenya. You people have rain, sunshine, good soil; you have all that it takes to produce good quality avocados, so why are you not getting this money, is there any reason,” she noted.

“As much as we have been exporting avocados, we are somewhere near half of the demand, but this demand is on those people who are doing quality work, be rest assured that where you are going is a good space, and don’t say that everybody is planting, not everybody is planting quality fruits, so once you do quality the market is huge,” she noted.

The Acting Managing Director of Access Bank Kenya Lilian Odhiambo who was present during the groundbreaking ceremony said the bank is ready to partner with farmers and the company to provide access to credit that would enable them to invest in avocado farming and grow their incomes.

“We have partnered with farmers in tea in the Rift Valley, we have partnered with farmers in the dairy industry, we have also partnered with farmers in Narok for wheat, so we are going to partner with you to be able to give you access to finance. Money is supposed to help you to realize your potential and the potential of this region is agriculture,” she explained.

She said Access Bank will offer training on financial literacy, investment, and on how to take care of the money they get from farming.

“We want the farmer to be the biggest winner of this project because once the farmer is happy everybody along the chain is happy so we are here to confirm that we will walk with Sisi Village Produce, we will walk with the cooperatives, we will walk with the farmers,” she added.

The Acting MD also noted that the Bank is partnering with local fin-techs to create a system to support cooperatives on financial management and on how they can effectively report back to farmers with a click of a button to enhance transparency and trust.

“Another thing that we bring to the cooperatives is their financial management, I know the cooperatives we have worked with before did not have systems in place to be able to report back to the farmers and the farmers to have information by just logging in through a USSD portal to get information about their produce, how much they owe, how much they expect, when are they expecting, when has the money hit the bank,” she explained.

The Director of Agriculture Vihiga County Government Ben Chumba who was present said to support the enterprise, Vihiga County is formulating an Agro-ecology policy which will be the second one in the country after the one in Murang’a county.