Fruit farmers in the county have a reason to smile after a company that will reduce post- harvest and nutrition losses launched its state of the art factory in Thika.
Azuri Health Limited which started in 2010 is expected to upsurge production of dried fruit and flour from 12 tonnes to 30 tonnes annually.
Speaking to press after the official launch on Wednesday evening, CEO Tei Mukunya said over 600 mangoes, pineapples and sweet potato farmers will benefit from a ready market prompting increase in production.
She underlined that the company had already established ready market for its products both internally and outside the country.
“We produce currently 10 tonnes of dried fruit and 9 tonnes of flour annually for the East African Market. With our new factory, we expect a rise in production to go along way with increasing demand of our products,” said Mukunya.
With over 1.3 billion tons of produced food spoiling before consumption worldwide, Mukunya attributed the rise to inadequacy of knowledge among the farmers in financing and equipment to harvest, sell, and process and store the harvested crops adequately.
“We started Azuri because of our passion and commitment to create sustainable, competitive and profitable products in order to improve livelihoods. Our main goal is to reduce post-harvest food security and improved nutrition through proper management of harvested food,” she said.
Mukunya pointed out that the company will be using environmentally friendly technologies such as green biogas and solar dryer to ensure controlled stringent quality drying of fruits.
“We are producing solar dried fruits to ensure we adhere to microbial safety measure to better our quality,” added the CEO.
Julius Kipngetich, the company chairman said that the new plant will ensure a consistency in production and supply of its products.
“The demand for dried food is growing especially among urban population and it’s important for us to meet this demand,” said Kipngetich.
He thanked the farmers for their support in producing the raw materials as the company handled the processing, marketing and distribution of consumable products.
The new facility is expected to develop a wider range of products to tackle nutrition challenge for the greater local markets and to ensure green processed foods for export market.
The company commercially distributes and markets nutritious, naturally dried products from its own processing facility and those sourced from farmers.
“All the waste mangoes that rot in Kenyan farms can now be put into good use through the drying mechanism. The reduction of these losses will bring in change of livelihoods as farmers will earn better,” said Martin Luseno, the company marketing manager.