By: John Kariuki
Hoftor Limited is a firm that seeks to provide availability of macadamia through value addition and making it affordable to Kenyans.
Charity Wanjiru and Luka Kirungu are the founders of Hoftor Macadamia and Charity says that she entered the business with an aim of value addition for the highly nutritious nut.
“In my research I came to realise that macadamia aren’t as available as the other nuts such as peanuts and cashews. This is why I started, after my maternity leave, with the help of my husband, to buy macadamia from the company that does the crushing and from there we are able to add value through roasting, packaging and marketing the nuts
mainly for the local market,” Charity noted.
Charity at the same time said she bridger the gap of local consumption of Macadamia by alleviating the notion that the nuts are only for export.
She sources her nuts from the counties of Embu and Kirinyaga with a gross turnover of about one hundred kilogrammes per month.
“Our flavours are white salt roast, Honey roast and White and dark chocolate coated nuts. And as you can see we don’t compromise on packaging just because it’s for local consumers we want them to experience fresh product in their original freshness in roast”
Her urge to the government is to support small business specialising in food value addition to increase food security and avoid post-harvest losses