An exhibitor displays wine made from banana during the launch of a
banana value chain agribusiness incubator centre to train farmers on how
to add value to the crop at Ankole Hills in Uganda. RACHEL KIBUI |
NATION
The mouth-watering juice in clear one-litre bottles is tempting
in the sweltering heat of the midday sun. Rows upon rows of them are
lined on long tables. A jovial young man, in a white apron and beige
trousers, is ready to sell you the mango-like juice for UgSh3,000
(Sh100) a bottle.
Sam Turyatunga, who just sat his
final exams at Kyambogo University, is here to showcase ‘‘Uhuru’’, a
brand of banana juice he has been producing for the last two years. He
ventured into the business to raise school fees, but it is now a
thriving enterprise employing 10 people.
The Food
Science and Technology student thought of making banana juice, an idea
he shared with his lecturer, who assisted him with equipment and
requested the university management to allow him to use its food
laboratory as a production unit.
“I started by producing just five litres a day but I am now making up to 500 litres,” he says.
Turyatunga
is not alone. At Biharwe, some 300 kilometres north-west of the Ugandan
capital Kampala, we have tracked down Kimani Muturi, a Kenyan who is
leading the banana value-addition revolution beyond his borders.
It
is here, overlooking the Ankole Hills and Mountains of the Moon
(Ruwenzoris) further on the horizon, that we learn there is much more
one can get from a banana beyond the ripe as well as boiled ones we eat;
and the leaves, stock and peelings we feed our livestock.
Muturi informs us that indeed one can make up to ten items from bananas, ranging from edibles to ornaments.
SHOES
“You
can also put on shoes made from banana stems while banana fibre is used
to make biodegradable bags and mats. Besides, briquettes made from
banana waste are now being used for cooking,” said Muturi, a lecturer at
Kyambogo University in Kampala and the director of AfriBanana Products
Limited, which help small-scale entrepreneurs to increase their earnings
through value addition.
We speak on the sidelines of
this exhibition, where banana agribusinesses and government officials
have gathered for the launch of new value-addition that will see banana
production streamlined, and if followed through, can change the face of
the banana business in East Africa.
It is the
inauguration of the banana value chain agribusiness incubator centre
where anyone interested in banana production and value addition will be
hosted so that their talents can be nurtured. They will be here until
they are able to stand on their own.
AfriBanana
Products Limited will provide them with the equipment, link them to both
local and international markets and manufacturing as well as provide
them with capital.
The organisation will also help the
traders get cleared by the Ugandan Bureau of Standards after ensuring
manufactures of high-quality products.
While the Pearl
of Africa, so-named by Winston Churchill for its rich flora and fauna,
has always been the hotbed of bananas, the industry needs streamlining
and robust value addition if it is to benefit from this crop, the don
says.
According to Muturi, who is a textile expert, the
innovators who will be taught how to utilise everything the banana
produces, will not be charged at the premises.
“Locals
have been making some of these products including juice and wine in
their homes and this has seen them clash with Ugandan authorities over
standards. But the new facility is expected to change banana farming as
we know it,” he explained.
Turyatunga has also given
hope to banana farmers in his native Wakiso District. Just like many
other people in value-chain under AfriBanana Limited, he buys bananas
from local farmers.
“I buy a 20kg bunch at a regular
price of UgSh12,000 (Sh400) while brokers offer between
UgSh7,000-UgSh8,000 (Sh235-Sh270),” says Turyatunga.
He
gets 30 litres of banana juice from each bunch and sells a litre at
UgSh2,400 (Sh80) for the wholesale and UgSh3,000 (Sh100) for the retail
market.
BROKERS
According
to Muturi, brokers sell the same produce for up to UgSh20,000 (about
Sh700) in Kampala, three times what they give farmers. A few metres
away, Miriam Kushaba displays her banana wine, called Tina, which she
named after her last-born daughter Matina.
Miriam left
teaching for music before venturing into banana farming. It was in 2011
when a friend who was manufacturing banana wine inspired her to take it
up as well.
“From one bunch of bananas weighing about
20 kgs, I get 40 litres of wine worth UgSh1.6 million (Sh53,000). The
same bunch would only earn me about UgSh8,000 (Sh270) if I was to sell
it through brokers,” says Miriam.
She says there are a
few more production costs from water, yeast, sweeteners and other
ingredients, but that does not take away the huge profit from turning
bananas into wine.
These profits are even more
staggering considering she does not need to buy bananas as she has her
own plantations covering over 100 acres.
In June she
produced 400 litres of wine, the highest so far. She sells the wine
mainly to local bars within Mbarara, the largest city in western Uganda.
Like Turyatunga, Miriam will be a beneficiary of the AfriBanana
Products Limited incubator.
Kimani says the premises
will comprise several production units and will make it easier for the
manufacturers to be cleared by the Uganda Bureau of Standards.
Raw
bananas are also prepared for markets in the US and UK. The NGO has so
far supported 52 agribusinesses, including 20 SMEs and 32 individuals,
reaching in total 4,000 farmers.
Can Kenyan farmers benefit? According to Muturi, Kenyans will need to start thinking in terms of processing.
“Nothing
should be wasted from a banana, including leaves and the stock which
Ugandans are using to make mats. I am happy Kenyans are beginning to
take this direction,” he says.
“Recently, officials
from Murang’a and Kisii – both big banana-producing areas – came here to
see how their counties can benefit from the technologies.”
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