A greater Africa face of hedges small farmers is to get their products from the farm to the market. Azuri Health Limited, a company Kenyan manufactures and distributes healthy food, help rural farmers in the Kenya access to markets for their fruit and cereals. The firm has established a partnership with more than 600 farmers to provide a range of products to markets Kenya and Sudan and is now looking to start exporting to the United States. How we do in Africa Regina Ekiru speaks of Tei Mukunya, Director General of the health of the Azuri.
TEI Mukunya displays products health Azuri beach.What was the driving force behind the creation of the health of the Azuri?
I have used to work under a program to help farmers value added. During this time, I fell to the experience of farmers of small challenges while trying to access the markets for their products.
For example, a group of women from Murang' has was struggling to put its product of flour porridge in the market despite donor huge investments in research, product development and capacity-building. After having developed an interest in helping farmers have easy access to the market for their products, I made an attempt for the Group products in retail stores. My first attempt was unsuccessful due to disruptions in the production. In 2005, I made a second attempt and managed to get space for products.
Products which currently have you in your portfolio?
At the time that we started the only product that us had was flour porridge. We, however, realizes that a product don't cut it for us. So we started working with a group of women from Busia and deployed our brand of potato flour. We have since announced new products and repackaged our old brands. Azuri health includes today flour Azuri Nutriporridge, which is our flagship product, potato Azuri, Kahurura Azuri powder flour (made from a plant of the pumpkin family), sweet potato cookies, and a range of dried fruits such as mangoes and pineapples. These products not only to the Kenya, but Sudan also sell. We have an annual turnover of Ksh.12 million (US$ 143,000).
Healthy living is the new craze. Lifestyle diseases are spreading rapidly, fuelling the demand for healthy lifestyle options. It is a market which, if well explored can produce benefits. Enter the market, it is not a joke due to competition. We are not unique. Beat the rest that we must move quickly to introduce new unique products.
Describe the relationship of Azuri health with farmers ' groups?
We work with several groups of farmers across the country, which the majority is made up of women. We have 600 farmers in our network. We have trained farmers feeding, processing and packaging. They, therefore, conduct the processing of products while we handle the marketing, distribution and sale. To ensure consistency of production and to provide us with recently established a Ksh.2 million ($24 million) plant in Nairobi. In the past, groups of farmers some challenges which affected the production and processing. Therefore, we have created our own processing plant to avoid such interruptions of supply. In addition we also offer advisory services and support the farmers. Most of these groups of women would have collapsed, but they are now a success because they have access to the market. We managed to put their products on the shelves of retail stores.
Tell us more about the challenges you encountered during the start-up of the company
Insufficient funding has been a major obstacle. To ensure the supply of large volumes, we have lots of funds. While having our products for sale in stores in the country, it is an important step, keep this calls for hard work and the appropriate organization. In the beginning, we were expelled from a string of local stores because our supply is erratic. We can afford to make such errors now. We are available in almost all supermarkets and have therefore keep that we supply. We also invest heavily in the commercialization of our products due to the competition in the sector of growth.
The lessons that you learned in an entrepreneurial spirit?
Resilience. When I quit my job to go to business, I had to tighten my budget until I hit rock bottom. He taught me to be very difficult. No matter what face challenge, I look at the positive aspects, knowing that the situation will improve.
What is the future for the health of the Azuri?
We want to implement an automated installation more important to increase our volume and effectively support the supply. We would also like to extend our reach in the regional market. We have plans to begin exporting to the United States soon.
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