Sunday gets livelihood in adding value to avocado

Mr Justus Sunday abandoned a well-paying job to practice what he studied at university.
With just Shs2 million as initial capital into an avocado and soya business, he has never looked back.
“What motivated me was the wastage of avocado fruits in the villages and lack of jobs for the rural population yet there exists abundant opportunities for employment in agro industries,” he said.
Having earned a degree in Agriculture Engineering and Rural Innovations in 1997 from Camatec University in Arusha - Tanzania, the 48-year old man returned to Uganda full of energy and vigour to work in the agriculture sector.
He said: “I was immediately employed by the Uganda National Federation of Agriculture (UNFA) in Bushenyi District as a skills development officer from 1999 to 2003.

However, I found out that I was not contributing to the community as much as I wanted since there were no industries to absorb the skills I was promoting.” This is when he resigned to start his own factory.
During the stint he had at UNFA he found out that the area produces a lot of avocado fruits but there was no value addition and most of it went to waste due to low consumption.
In 2005 he decided to go for a postgraduate diploma in Food Science and Technology to help him polish the skills he wanted.

Factory starts
Mr Sunday’s avocado oil extraction factory came to life in 2011 and since then it has been getting bigger and better.
He started adding value to both avocado and soya bean. In this part of the country the two are organically grown and are very nutritious foods that give noticeable impact on the users. In adding value to the crop, Mr Sunday makes avocado oil, massage oil, avocado tea, shoe polish, lip bum and soap.
“In soya I am able to make soya milk, soya kawa, soya cake and soya powder, among others,” he says.

Goes into fabrication
He said: “To achieve this, I first fabricated machines for use in the factory. I started with an avocado oil presser, miller, and oven drier, and later a soap molder. I then fabricated more machines and gave them to other farmers on agreed terms for extraction of oil so that I would be able to meet my oil targets.”
When this was done, he started work with two workers but has since grown to reach his current staff of 15 full time workers but he employs more people whenever he gets big orders.
He gets most of the avocados from Bushenyi District at Shs300 a kilogramme, while soya beans normally come from Kasese District at Shs1,500 a kilogramme.

Achievements
Since he started he has been able to process various products from soya and avocado like Ovo-Soya drink, beauty soap, baby soya, massage oil used in massage parlours.
“I have bought 10 acres land for the orchard, and industrial land at Kitwe at Shs60m. And have improved livelihoods of the local communities in Bushenyi District through creating jobs for the youths, and helped engineering students with internship placements at my firm.”
He also helps neighbouring farmers with skills development. John, one of the farmers who have benefitted from him says: “Mr Sunday has trained many of us in good agriculture practices, given us oil extractors and soya beans for planting.”
Challenges
Mr Sunday says although he has had profits coming there are challenges in his work.
“One of the major challenges I have is power fluctuations during the production process and operating in rented premises. The transformer in Nyakabirizi Division, Bushenyi Municipality where my factory is, is single phase and unable to power big machines,” he says, adding, most of his machines are rudimentary and needs better and efficient ones.
“I need an avocado oil extractor able to process two raw avocado tonnes per day. I also need a lorry and delivery van for the factory transport needs, and working capital is still inadequate,” he says.

Prospects
He needs working capital to put up an industrial building to start manufacturing medicinal avocado powder and drink that are good for cardiac complications.
He is also currently planting 10 acres of hass avocado variety orchard in Ruhumuro village in Kyamuhunga Sub-county. Hass variety has the richest oil content and will improve the quality of oil produced for export. He also intends to put up a soap and lotion systems line.

Avocado benefits
Avocado is a very versatile fruit. Its creamy flavour goes well with many foods, making it a refreshing and nutritious addition to various recipes. Avocados can also be beneficial when used topically, as they have nourishing and moisturising properties.
Avocado is avocado is an amazing treatment that helps reduce wrinkles thereby fighting aging.
It also helps to keep a healthy and glowing complexion of the skin through drinking a cup of avocado juice a day. Here, it nourishes and protects your skin from the inside out.