By: Dan
Worth Noting:
- The family company is run in Kenya by Mr. Dhiren Chandaria an ambitious builder of successful businesses in Canada, the US, and Kenya and his daughter Nikita Chandaria as Vice president of New businesses development.
- The Chandaria family has teamed up their Insta Products with FAO, IKEA Found and IFC foundation to support local farmers and refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement scheme.
- Nikita Chandaria or Nix Chandaria as commonly referred to by her peers is a 25 year old industry captain whose vision is building Nairobi based Insta Products company to be the world largest ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and supplementary food in the next 20-30 years.
Insta Products is a world leader in the manufacture of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and supplementary foods.
The family company is run in Kenya by Mr. Dhiren Chandaria an ambitious builder of successful businesses in Canada, the US, and Kenya and his daughter Nikita Chandaria as Vice president of New businesses development.
Mr. Chandari’s eldest son Ishtar Chandaria is the CEO Nigeria Operations (Ariel food) which is four times larger than Kenyan based Insta Products factory.
Mr. Chandaria bought the then-ailing Insta Products in 2012, with the vision of turning the company around. He received a combined loan of $11 million USD from GAFSP, IFC, and IFU to assist him in acquisition of the company
Mr. Chandaria who prides himself as an engineer came back to Kenya after spending 24 years in North America where he built strong business empires.
Upon return, he acquired Orbit Chemicals, now the largest contract manufacturer in Kenya serving multinational and local customers like Unilever, Colgate, Reckitt, PZ Cussons, Henkel, and L’Oréal in 2011 and late in the year he initiated the acquisition of Insta Products.
Mr. Dhiren Chandaria love to impact on the less fortunate in community saw him commit most of his time in developing Insta Products whose main clients are; UNICEF,WFP,USAID and MSF.
These organizations use the ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to feed malnutritioned communities around the globe.
Economic impact of Insta Products
The Chandaria family has teamed up their Insta Products with FAO, IKEA Found and IFC foundation to support local farmers and refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement scheme.
FAO, IKEA Found and IFC foundation offer trainings to farmers on the best ways of producing aflatoxin free groundnuts while Insta Products provides markets for all the ground nuts produced.
In our interview with Nikita, the Vice president of New businesses development at Insta Products she disclosed that they buy all the groundnuts produced by these farmers. She however said that Insta Products has capacity to buy even more and as such they have partnered with the Turkana County Government to build a water pan in the area with an aim of increasing the productivity of the farmers in the region.
Insta Products also sponsored two students from University of Nairobi to University of Georgia in USA to learn from the local communities in US about best practices in peanut farming.
The two students learnt about producing aflatoxin flee groundnuts and modern water harvesting mechanisms. State of Georgia in USA is known for the best groundnuts that are free of this harmful chemical that damages liver and kills a lot of people.
Nikita told Mt. Kenya Times that Insta Products believes in economically empowering communities in a sustainable manner and that is why they are more focused in partnering with other organization who offers training as Insta Products offers market to farmers.
By so doing, farmers have been appreciating the economic relationship and Nikita said that the feedback they have been getting in overwhelming. She said that this feedback and community satisfaction and returns from their hard work is what motivates her to wake up early and focus in making Insta Products Company greater and better every day.
Nikita further said in 2019 they construction of new Insta Products factory which shall be the largest producer of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and supplementary foods in the world.
Since 2015 Nairobi based Insta Products company has been serving Africa and Yemen.
Nikita disclosed that the market for ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and supplementary foods around the world is so huge that no single company can satisfy the need, but they shall try to play their part and impact the world to their best as Insta Products Company.
Nikita says they are forecasting that by the end of three years they will have 4,000 beneficiaries and 1,000 households in Kakuma and Kalobeyei.
In addition to Kakuma project, Insta Products Company has been making Family donations to Enkijape primary school in Nairobi where they feed 750 children with nutritious porridge daily.
According to our world in data organization’s research on hunger and undernourishment;
- 11% of the world’s population is undernourished – this means they have a caloric intake below minimum energy requirements.
- 820 million people globally are undernourished.
- 22% of children younger than five are ‘stunted’ – they are significantly shorter than the average for their age, as a consequence of poor nutrition or repeated infection.
- 9% of the world population – around 697 million people – is severely food insecure.
- One-in-four people globally – 1.9 billion – are moderately or severely food insecure.
Who is Nikita Chandaria?
Nikita Chandaria or Nix Chandaria as commonly referred to by her peers is a 25 year old industry captain whose vision is building Nairobi based Insta Products company to be the world largest ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and supplementary food in the next 20-30 years.
“My plans for the next 20-30 years is to address the need for severe acute malnutrition and start addressing the problem starting due to poor nutrition,”
“In addition to look for new products for African Market for the population suffering stunted growth,” Nikita said.
She is the second born of Mr. Dhiren Chandaria in a family of three. Her siblings are Ishtar the elder brother who is the CEO Nigeria Operations (Ariel food) and her little sister Tisca who is in University studying International relations.
Nikita studied in USA in California in her basic and university education where she studied Bsc in Business Administration.
On completion of her degree, she worked at a technology company in USA for one and a half years as product manager. Here she learnt about project management and team work.
She graduated in May 2018 and joined in 2018 the technology real Estate company the same year,
She left the company in February 2020 and joined her father Mr. Dhiren Chandaria who she said is her greatest mentor and role model.
When asked why she opted to first get employment in another company and not family business, Nikita said it helped her to gain external skills and experience which have proven golden in her work at the family business.
Nikita said running family business is not easy but with dedication, skills and exposure she acquired in the technology company, she is up to task and she is well equipped to build successful companies now and in future.
Nikita said she is very passionate about Kakuma project which produces raw material for value added peanuts that are aimed at 1 billion people malnourished and 1 billion overweight people across the world.
She said the secret behind Insta Products is a strong family culture (they work as a team) and external mentors who help her think differently from family experiences.
Nikita said she had had many mentors when young and advices fellow youths to get many mentors
“Get many mentors at your age you and learn more quickly by being proactive in both learning and development and should not wait to be told what to do,” Nikita advices.
Nikita disclosed that their family did not have previous experience in food companies before acquiring Insta products in 2011.
“Before 2011 the family had no any experience in food business but you have to learn very quickly and previous experience is very valuable,” Nikita said.
Suleiman Mbatiah