Nyeri farmer turns rejected avocado into oil selling at Sh800 a bottle

Avocado farming has increasingly emerged as a lucrative agricultural venture in Kenya, driven by growing local and export demand.

However, for many farmers, the returns from the crop have remained constrained by weak bargaining power, limited access to premium markets, and reliance on middlemen.

In Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri County, farmers have reported selling a kilogramme of avocado for as little as Sh5 to middlemen.

A kilogramme typically contains seven to nine fruits, meaning traders can acquire the produce at a fraction of its retail value.

In the market, a single avocado can fetch between Sh50 and Sh70, highlighting the wide gap between what farmers receive and what consumers ultimately pay.

It is this gap that pushed former nominated Nyeri County Assembly member Patrick Mutahi Muthoni to look beyond the traditional fresh produce market and find value in avocados that would otherwise be rejected or left to rot.

In 2024, Mr. Mutahi founded Mukurwe-ini Oil Enterprises, an agribusiness that processes avocado, sunflower and castor oil.

The business targets, among other produce, avocados that fail to meet export requirements because of their size, dents or other cosmetic imperfections.

Instead of leaving such fruit on farms to spoil, the enterprise buys and processes it into oil, giving farmers an alternative market while converting what would otherwise be waste into a commercial product.

“As a leader, I saw an opportunity to be able to provide access to markets for our farmers,” Mr. Mutahi says.

According to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), an average of four kilogrammes of avocado can produce one litre of oil.

Mr. Mutahi says the venture is rooted in a broader market challenge facing farmers in his community.

“The main motivation was to improve the livelihood of our farmers here. They have so many agricultural products, but they normally sell them as raw products. Others, because of the distant market, are not able to get to the market,” he says.

The enterprise began with three employees but has since expanded to 10 permanent workers and five casual workers.

It now operates across three value chains, seeking to extract greater commercial value from crops that farmers would otherwise sell without processing.

The company has also gone a step further by developing products beyond plain avocado oil. One of its products is a pain-relief oil made by blending avocado, sunflower and castor oils. The product retails at Sh1,200 a bottle, compared with Sh800 for the plain oil.

“We also have realised, instead of selling it as pure as it is, we blend now to make this pain relief oil. Just to add more value,” he says. “We are adding value when we produce it as it is. But we felt that we could add more value.”

The model offers farmers an alternative to depending entirely on fresh produce buyers, particularly when the fruit cannot meet the stringent requirements of export markets.

The enterprise currently works with about 150 farmers, with Mutahi aspiring to grow the network to more than 1,000 farmers as the business expands its processing capacity and market reach.

Also Read: Avocado farming mistakes that are costing Kenyan farmers millions