Firm invests in groundnut processing factory in LL
About 18 000 farmers are expected to benefit from a new groundnut factory, which will be set up by Afri-Oils at Chitipi in Lilongwe.
The factory, expected to be operational in April 2017, is a joint investment by AgDevCo, Exagris, National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi and a Dutch grant.
The development comes at a time Malawi’s groundnuts are facing challenges on the international market largely due to the prevalence of aflatoxins, which are poisonous and cancer-causing chemicals produced by certain moulds in the soil.
An official at AgDevCo, Charlotte Dubois, said in an e-mailed response to a questionnaire on Tuesday they hope to lessen incidences of the groundnuts being affected by aflatoxin.
She said: “Our expectation is that under the Going Nuts project, 40 000 farmers will be trained in good agricultural practices as well as harvesting and post-harvesting techniques by Nasfam and Exagris.
“Afri-Oils is building a processing facility for locally-grown peanuts, which will produce a variety of groundnut products, sized and graded raw nuts, blanched and roasted nuts as well as groundnut paste.”
According to Dubois, Afri-Oils is targeting 18 000 farmers based on the groundnut volumes to be processed in the factory in the short-term.
She said there is significant potential to increase the volumes of groundnuts in the long-term as the firm expands its product range and customer base.
AgDevCo established its office in Malawi in September 2013 when it secured large-scale funding from the UK Department of International Development (DfID) for investments across five countries, which heralded the start of their work in Malawi.
“We remain focused on the significant opportunity to transform the productivity of Malawi’s agriculture sector,” said Dubois.
Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Alfred Kapichira Banda hailed the move by AgDevCo, saying many groundnut farmers will benefit from the factory.
“This is a good development, which will transform the lives of thousands of farmers. The factory, apart from creating jobs, will also help Malawi get forex as the processed nuts will be exported to European markets” he said. n
