Foodstuff & Beverages

Pwani Oil Products Limited (Company) is one of the largest manufacturers of edible oils, fat and laundry bar soap in the region. Our modern state-of-the art refinery plant at Jomvu, in Mombasa, has a capacity to refine over 450 metric tones of oil a day to the highest international standards. The company was started in 1985 and already our products command a large share of not only the Kenyan but the COMESA market as well. We have established strong export markets in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands. We are quickly building our presence and brands in more countries as our export strategy begins to take shape. Our marketing practice, led by a polished, experienced and well-trained team, has made us one of the fastest growing and visible manufacturing and marketing companies in the region. We put great value to reliable service and are always looking for the best ways to improve our brands through working closely with the trade and the consumer. Our growing distribution network ensures that we are taking a prominent position as a household name in Kenya and the Region.

NAS Airport Services is a Kenya-based, internationally recognized in-flight catering company. We are one of the longest-established catering specialists in the world, with a tradition of excellence in service to airlines.For more than 50 years we have provided local and international airlines landing at Kenya’s premier airports in Nairobi (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport - JKIA) and Mombasa (Moi International Airport - MIA) with fully integrated catering provision, loading and off-loading, laundry, bonded storage and dry goods uplift. The services are tailored to the precise requirements of each airline, and are provided directly by our own workforce of 800 professionals, using purpose-built and fully equipped facilities.NAS was founded in 1949 as a one-man sandwich delivery service operating from a wooden shack! NAS founder Robert Gabriel Seaman registered the company to sell food to aircraft operating out of a military base. Ten years later, when a new international airport on the outskirts of Nairobi was opened, Seaman changed his company’s name to NAS Holdings Ltd and relocated to the new facility. In 1965 NAS Holdings Ltd formed NAS Airport Services Ltd as a fully integrated undertaking that was soon on its way to international acclaim.Today NAS boasts a state-of-the-art, super hygienic, world-class facility, operating in the fast lane of international air services. All processes are computerised including supply chain, scheduling, audits, and checklists at every phase, all using specialized catering software. These are compatible and interactive with each airline’s own administration software, ensuring absolute accuracy and efficiency and instant crosscheck capability.The NAS complex in Nairobi covers 11,000 sq metres on 3-hectares and is geared for production peaks of more than 10,000 meals per day, with direct access to the apron of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The operation has a modern fleet of high-loaders and all the necessary handling facilities, crews and support systems to serve a high volume of jetliners simultaneously.The Mombasa facility occupies 4,000 square metres on 1.2 hectares and is similarly equipped for 5,000 meals per day.NAS operations are audited annually by various international bodies and consistently score top marks. NAS are regarded as innovative leaders in the in-flight catering market, and we pride ourselves on offering creative catering solutions tailored to individual client needs.

Sidama Coffee Cooperative is well known for its production of garden coffee. Our growing areas have the ideal soil type and climatic conditions (altitude, rainfall and temperature) for the production of an extraordinary coffee. Sidama produces approximately 35,000 tons of high quality Organic Arabica beans per year on 70,000 hectares of land. Sixty percent of our beans are washed, with the remainder sun-dried. Our union strives to be genuine in its product identification, loyal to its members and customers, steadfast in its commitments, and proactive in its response to available opportunities. Coffee Production In Sidama, the garden coffee system is widely practiced.  Coffee is grown near homesteads and is planted at low densities, ranging from 1,000 to 1,800 plants per hectare.  Most garden coffee is fertilized with organic nutrients.   Harvesting Depending on altitudinal variation and rainfall distribution, the harvesting period varies from September to December.  Harvesting is mostly done by family labor.  Freshly hand-picked cherries are sorted before pulping and are sold to the primary cooperatives for wet processing. More than 30 percent of the country's washed coffee comes from the Sidama area.  Currently there are 221 pulperies in the area, 91 of which are owned by SCFCU cooperatives.   Wet Processing Fresh clean cherries arriving at pulperies are pulped and allowed to ferment naturally.  The fermented coffee is washed with clean running water, soaked in clean water and then dried to retain about 11.5 percent moisture. Dried parchments (washed and dried coffee with husks) are stored in a warehouse until delivery to the central market in Addis Ababa.  The husk is removed and the clean beans are packaged in labeled bags (60 kg / 132 lbs) for export.   Quality Control At each stage, coffee quality is ensured though an integrated quality control system.  Red cherries delivered to the washing stations are inspected.  Only those beans that meet the exacting export standards and have verified origin characteristics are allowed to be exported.   Organic Certification Twenty-five cooperative members out of 42 have been certified organic by BCS OKO-GARANTIE GMBH Germany with a potential exporting capacity of over 7,000 tons of coffee per annum. Fair Trade Labeling Organization FLO Certification Eight primary cooperatives are inscribed in FLO certification and have the potential to produce 6,875 tons of coffee per annum. UTZ KAPEH Certification Two primary cooperatives are certified by the UTZ KAPEH foundation in the Netherlands and produce 360 tons of green beans per annum.  Certification for five other cooperatives is currently underway. Auction Market Waiver Our union has obtained special permission to by-pass the auction market and sell directly to our clients. Memberships Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Eastern African Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA) Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce (AACC) Recent International Awards World Specialty Commodities Award, Paris 2005 Rosters Guild, Specialty Coffee Association of America Award, Seattle 2005 ECafe Gold Cooperative Coffee Ethiopian Competition 2005, First Place honor in washed and unwashed Sidamo varietal class International Quality Award, The Arch of Europe, Frankfurt 2004  

For generations, the family cocoa farms of Ghana have produced beans of wondrous quality. Ghanaian farmers harvest the ripe cocoa pods by hand, ferment the beans between banana leaves right on the forest floor and then dry the beans in the warm African sun. To this day, European and American chocolatiers buy cocoa beans from Ghana and export them to their chocolate factories throughout the world where the famed Ghanaian beans are transformed into some of the world's most delicious and expensive chocolate.Ghana, AfricaNow, for the first time, The Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company is producing world class chocolate entirely in Ghana using beans The Financial Times calls "the finest cocoa in the world." Steven C. Wallace founded the company in February, 1991, at the age of 29 convinced that if Ghana could grow the "world's finest cocoa", it ought to be able to produce some of the world's finest chocolate. Wallace's interest in Ghana began in 1978 when, as a sixteen year-old, AFS high school foreign exchange student, he lived in the town of Sunyani located in the fertile Brong-Ahafo region of the country. His host family was a traditional Ghanaian family consisting of his host father, his three wives and twenty-one children.Omanhene Chocolate Bean CompanyOmanhene has proven itself one of the most successful and creative joint ventures between the U.S. and Ghana. We have won accolades from United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Shirley Temple (former ambassador to Ghana) and President Jimmy Carter. We produce value-added gourmet chocolate tailored specifically to export markets resulting in enhanced foreign exchange revenues for Ghana. The sale of Omanhene chocolate results in higher revenues and consequently higher wages for both workers at the chocolate factory and for local cocoa farmers. Since cocoa is a commodity crop, farm incomes in Ghana are subject to world cocoa price fluctuations. Ghanaian cocoa farmers have previously been forced to abandon their farms when world cocoa prices stagnate.

Unified Chemicals is a large manufacturing company in southern Africa with our base of operations in Lusaka, Zambia.We produce the highest grade cooking oil and soon, will also manufacture detergents in Lusaka, Zambia. This plant has been completed and production has started in Lusaka with sales on the market of Ole vegetable oil. The highly modern and sanitary manufacturing facility produces vegetable oil to the highest international standard. The correct application of physical and chemical processes are insured by the suitability of our equipment and the care with which the processes are allied. Our highly skilled staff, constantly monitor production in order to ensure that every bottle of oil produced consistently maintains the high standards we have set. Because of the efficiency of our systems our plant conserves energy, and we are able, as a result, to bring our products to market at very reasonable cost, continuing the company's tradition of value and quality.  We are scrupulous in our choice of material for our vegetable oil. This ensures that the oil is not only pure and good tasting, but healthy, to promote the well being of the buying public. The quality of our oil has been well accepted by the market. Management feels that the company has reached the stage for a deep foray into both domestic as well as international markets. Soap and detergent plants are expected to go on stream soon as well. Unified Chemical Company was founded incorporated in Zambia in 1979,  to help meet shortages of essential commodities occurring at that time. Over the years the company has established a name for producing high quality products at low prices. Recognizing a need for locally produced vegetable oil, the company began the construction of a new, modern vegetable oil refining center to continue its tradition of high quality products.During the period, 1998 – 2003, the company went through a major rehabilitation of its plant and facilities culminating in the establishment of a modern plant along Katanga Road in the industrial area of Lusaka for the refining of crude soya oil and the manufacturing of soaps and detergents.The plant and technology for the refinery was supplied by De Smet of Belgium who are the world leaders in edible oil refining technology. The oil refinery was commissioned in June 2004. The plant has the capacity to refine 2,000 MT of oil per month. The market share of the company in the domestic sector is steadily increasing over the past one year. During this period, limited quantities have been exported to neighbouring countries as well. IMSA (Impianti Macchine Saponi of Italy) supplied the technology for the soap and glycerine divisions.