Notes From Africa: Granot, RCL Foods, Wacot Rice, United Capital

Here's the latest in ESM's regular series, Notes From Africa, which brings you the latest retail, consumer goods, and food-and-beverage stories from across the African continent. Past editions can be found here.

Granot, a leading avocado producer in Israel, and Agris, the local Kenyan subsidiary of the investment company Maris, have agreed to set up a joint 390-hectare avocado plantation on a farm in Naivasha. The joint venture is supported by an $8 million mezzanine fund from UK investment firm AgDevCo.

Granot will provide its international expertise in extension, packaging, and marketing services to support Agris in diversifying its investments in the sector. This partnership also allows Granot to establish itself in the East African market through Agris' network in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Sudan.

South African food giant RCL Foods plans to invest R620 million ($34 million) in renovating and rehabilitating its Rainbow Chicken Processing Plant and hatchery in Hammarsdale, Durban. This investment aims to bring the plant back to full capacity and increase its production capacity by 60% within a year.

A portion of the funding will come from affiliated farmers who want to increase their poultry deliveries to the plant. RCL Foods is the largest poultry company in Africa, with an average annual slaughter of over 250 million broilers.

The Lagos State government in Nigeria has signed a financing agreement with the Lagos Commodity Futures Exchange (LCFE) to mobilise N100 million ($216 million) from investors by the end of the 2023 fiscal year for the new rice mill. This funding will be used to ensure a continuous supply of raw materials for the mill, which requires over 240,000 tonnes of paddy rice annually to operate at full capacity.

The Imota rice mill is currently operated by Wacot Rice Limited, a subsidiary of the Tropical General Investment (TGI) Group. The mill is expected to produce about 2.5 million 50 kg bags of rice per year under the brand name Eko Rice.

The Tanzanian government is finalizing preparations for a cashew processing project in the Mtwara region in the south of the country. The project includes the construction of a modern cashew processing plant in the Nanyamba district, covering an area of over 400 hectares.

The processing unit will have a capacity of 300,000 tons of nuts per year. The project aims to support the government's ambition to locally process the entire stock of cashew nuts exported by the country by 2027. Currently, Tanzania processes less than 35% of its cashew production annually.

In Burkina Faso, construction has begun on a cassava processing plant in the commune of Pô, in the Centre-South region. The plant, covering an area of 4,800 square metres, will have a processing capacity of 3,000 tonnes of cassava per year.

It is expected to be completed by August of this year, and will produce various by-products such as tapioca, garri (flour made from fresh starchy cassava roots), and attiéké (fermented cassava couscous). Burkina Faso currently produces about 25,000 tons of cassava annually, according to official data.

The Zambian government has initiated the construction of a fertiliser plant in the Chilanga district of Lusaka province. The project, costing $600 million, is financed by agrochemical company United Capital Fertiliser. The plant will have a production capacity of 480,000 tonnes of fertiliser per year, including 300,000 tonnes of urea and 180,000 tonnes of ammonium.

Construction will be carried out by Chinese company Wuhuan Engineering, which specialises in managing chemical industry projects. The new plant is expected to make Zambia self-sufficient in fertiliser within the next two years, according to Reuben Mtolo, Minister of Agriculture.