KEIIT EXPORTERS, Redefining the Export of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Behind 20 years since setting up shop, is the story of resilience, innovation, partnerships and determination that truly defines Keitt Exporters, a Kenyan company which is growing its global tentacles and increasing its fresh produce portfolio. At inception in the year 2002 with mangoes being their solely crop they were exporting, the company has diversified to other fruits such avocados, passion fruits, and an array of vegetables and herbs which continues to excite the global market.
As one of the largest exporters, the company attributes its success to perfecting its supply chain, investing in innovative technologies, having its own in-house consignment handling systems, ranging from packaging, transportation, warehousing, and documentation to forwarding and shipping.
“The fact that we have been in existence for 20 years tells a lot about how we adopt to situations, how we improve and innovate and how we are always on the lookout for new ways of doing business. We began in a small go-down at the airport, that time we were doing the manual packing, there was nomachines. From there we moved to Kenbelt Complex, bought one machine and we started to export by ourselves. We later relocated to our current premises in 2012 where we were shipping one container in a week but currently we are shipping 30 containers in a week. Moreover, we have our own farms where we have planted produce such as avocados in Embu and Meru,” opined Uzair Ul Hassan, General Manager Keitt Exporters.
In 2009, the company introduced their own in-house logistics company which helps them in maintaining a seamless logistics and excellent customer service, ensuring there is consistent freshness throughout the supply chain. Moreover, this has also enabled the exporter to be able to consolidate more farmers at one central place in various growing regions for pickup of their produce.
In order to make their products more competitive, the company has been exploring innovative ways of getting produce from farmers to the customers by working on quality and pricing.
At the heart of the new business model was a strategy that the company came up with to guide operations. In 2021, the company built the largest pack house in Eastern and Sub-Sahara Africa for processing avocados.The pack house has a capacity of processing 1,500 tons of avocado in a week.
The pack house nestled in the serene Kenol, Murang’a County is at the heart of the avocado growing zone. This has enabled Keitt to process more volumes. These volumes are attributed to the success of their ‘Home of Avocado Farmers’ initiative which has reached over 5,000 small and medium scale holders, a number that continues to grow. Besides the Kenol pack house, the company also has a packhouse at Keitt Complex in Nairobi
“The initiative has enabled us to train more farmers on good crop husbandry. We have a technical team on the ground which is supporting them whilst providing them with the technical facilities on a need be basis. On the vegetable side, we provide farmers with seedls and on the ovacado part we provide farmers with seedlings,” he said
Farmers joining Keitt need to have a contract with us. The contract binds the two parties for one year, after which the farmer may choose to renew for another year or not.. This enables the technical team to visit the farm, advice on which farming practices the farmer should adopt and guide the farmer before being recruited.
The company’s ‘Home of Avocado’ out growers program aims to support and motivate farmers to grow the best high quality avocados that meet the international market needs. Keitt group has generated businesses beyond growing, processing and exporting of fruits and vegetables. They are in value addition of extracting and exporting of Avocado oil. This is representing their extensive footprint in the horticulture industry.
“Now with avocado oil extraction we generate better value for our farmers. Our research and development team is constantly working on developing newer products that gives better value to our farmers and clients. At present we are manufacturing crude oil and shall soon start producing extra virgin avocado oil. Other value added products under development includes frozen avocado pulp, chunks and avocado halves,” the General Manager explained.
In regard to Kenya embracing sea freight to transport its fresh produce, the exporter noted that this was timely and that as the industry continues to realign itself with global happenings, players must be prepared to come up with sustainable solutions. To respond to the new development, the company ships 30 containers in a week. “It is inevitable that Kenya had to move to sea freight. Pricewise it is more competitive and it has proven itself as a more sustainable solution,” he said.
The company is involved in supporting the vulnerable children in the society by sponsoring their educational needs, offering internship opportunities for university students who are undertaking agronomy studies and those who perform impressively they are offered employment opportunity.
In addition, the company is involved in environmental conservation that is geared towards sustaining ecosystem and mitigating the effects of climate change. They are participating in agro-forestry, planting indigenous trees and preservation of riparian land, wetlands and rivers around their farms.
For the future, they have a plan of setting an avocado oil extraction plant in Tanzania. They also intend to increase their fruits print to the whole of the East African side.
“Those who are envisioning joining the exporter market, my humble request is export quality products, it is good for our country,” he said. The export market has been able to strengthen the Kenyan farmers with monetary value and also empowering them with good farming practices. This has led to adoption of various certifications.
