Murang’a youth thrives adding value to avocado

WILSON Mwangi, 30, is one of the many youths earning a living from the avocado sector.

The youth started the business of brokering and transporting fruits from farms to processing plants soon after completing his tertiary education.

Mwangi was earning a decent living from the sector until 2023, when the production slumped and demand for the fruit soared.

“I struggled to fill a pick-up with the fruits as transporting a halffilled vehicle was too expensive and left me with no profits,” he said.

But as he waited for more fruits to become available, the ones he had already bought from farmers spoiled and he ended up feeding them to pigs.

Reeling from losses, Mwangi had to find an alternative way of earning a living from the crop and decided to start adding value to the fruits.

With limited resources, Mwangi, who has studied plant operations, designed a manual plant that would enable him to press oil out of the fruits.

“First, I did a lot of research to understand how pressing oil from avocados goes and how pressing machines work,” he said.

He then engaged a local jua kali artisan to establish the small plant, which is operated using hands.

Mwangi subsequently opened an office in Kiria-ini town in Mathioya subcounty, which he called Ewims Farm Enterprises.

Breaking even, however, did not come easy, as locals struggled to embrace the new oil, especially since he marketed it as a beauty product for skin and hair.

“I hired local youths to engage in intensive marketing to explain to locals the benefits of using avocado oil,” he said, adding that most of his customers are women.

“Slowly, the perception started changing and people started buying it.”

Mwangi said the business has since grown and currently employs 20 local youths, who buy avocados from farmers.

The youths have been trained to ensure only the mature fruits are harvested.

Another team of 20 people are engaged in the plant to process the fruits and press the oil. After the fruits are taken to the plant, they are put in a room where they are allowed to ripen.

They are then sorted and the ones that go bad discarded, while the ripe ones are cleaned and the pulp removed and kneaded. It’s then dried in the sun before it’s put in the pressing machine and the oil collected and packed in 65ml and 120ml bottles.

“In a week, we produce about 20 litres of avocado oil, which we sell at Sh250 for the 65ml bottle and Sh500 for the 120ml one,” he said.

“Our biggest market is our local market but we’re also penetrating the nearby counties as we expand.”

Mwangi has been engaging farmers in capacity building to ensure the fruits delivered are purely organic as the clamour for healthier products rises.

Murang’a county has been on the forefront of championing agroecology, which includes organic farming, as a way of lessening the disease burden among residents.

This after research showed that Murang’a was among the counties with the highest prevalence of noncommunicable diseases.

As a result, many farmers have been engaging in organic farming and shunning harmful farming chemicals. Mwangi, who has an orchard with 200 avocado trees, said his plan is to acquire an automatic pressing machine that will allow him to produce more oil.

“I have foreign markets, especially in China, but I am unable to produce enough quantities to export the oil,” he said.

He buys the fruits at Sh15 per kilogramme, and unlike other processors, harvests all mature fruits without much sorting as they are not for consumption.

He urged youths to try their luck in small and medium enterprises, saying it’s the only way to improve their lives while creating employment for others.

Alfred Kimani, one of the youths engaged to buy avocados from farmers, said he formerly operated as a boda boda operator.

When Mwangi started the small plant, however, Kimani took advantage as he already had a motorcycle that he uses to transport the fruits from farms.

“This is much easier work and more profitable, and all I have to do is get pickers and transport the fruits to the factory,” he said.

Murang’a county is the largest producer of avocados in Kenya, providing an opportunity for residents to engage in the fruit’s value chain.

The county has more than 96,000 avocado farmers who currently produce about 500 metric tonnes annually.

The practice gained popularity during the tenure of former Governor Mwangi wa Iria, who distributed more than two million Hass avocado seedlings, enabling farmers to turn it into a cash crop.

Before then, most rural households planted few avocado trees to supplement their families’ diet and earn an extra coin from brokers, who would buy the fruit at the throwaway price of Sh2 per piece.

The county government facilitated the formation of Murang’a Avocado Farmers’ Association, empowering farmers to engage in contract farming with processors and exporters, and raising the prices to up to Sh70 per kilogramme.

In 2021, Murang’a accounted for 31 per cent of the country’s avocado produce, with the fruit earning Sh18 billion from exports in 2023.