By Herbert Musoke
Hassan Al-Kailani, the managing partner at Avolio Industries Ltd, located in the Kazinga Namanve industrial area in Wakiso district, emphasises that the export market imposes specific parameters.
Fruits that fail to meet these criteria are categorised as grade two. Farmers have been throwing away grade two since even the local market does not buy Hass avocado for table consumption.
On the contrary, processing factories buy all avocado but the price depends on the dry material.
“Unlike the export market, at processing, we want well-mature avocado fruits, which constitute the dry matter. The more mature the fruit, the higher the dry matter and oil production and the higher the price,” he says.
He adds that the factory has two processing lines and can crush up to 160 tonnes a day but with the current supply, they only crush at half capacity yet they buy even the local varieties at sh300 a kilogram.
From the waste, Avolio factory is making bar soap, which, Al-Kailani says is good for the skin and they are waiting for the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to certify it before taking it to the open market.
“For now, we are making bar soap. However, we are thinking of making powdered soap if we see that the bar soap is doing well on the market,” he adds.
Khadija Nakakande, the head of communication at the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) says that the innovation will not only lower the cost of soap but also put healthy organic soap on the market.
