Patrick Mukundi Mbogo is the creator of Privamnuts EPZ Kenya, a firm that processes and exports macadamia nuts.
The former banker started the firm in 2011 after meeting a macadamia nut grower.
In 2010, Mbogo worked as a cashier at I&M Bank in Nairobi. While at it, he would serve a client who came into the bank every month to sell large sums of US dollars.
“It was unusual because normally people want to buy dollars, not sell them,” he said.
Mbogo revealed that he met the client at some time and discovered that he was a macadamia nut seller.
“I started talking to him, and he told me he traded macadamia nuts. I knew there were a lot of macadamia trees near where I lived in Embu, some of which were decaying away,” he explained.
Mbogo stated that he would source the nuts from Embu and sell them to the dealer, albeit in modest quantities.
“So I received some basic training, learned how to inspect for high-quality nuts and began a tiny enterprise. I’d buy raw nuts from farmers and sell them to my former customer,” he explained.
Mbogo exchanged macadamia nuts with local businesses for a while before securing his first international client.
Around the same time, he met an investor who offered to invest in his new enterprise.
“I knew an old friend who worked for the Export Promotion Council. He referred me to an investor looking to source macadamia nuts in the country. The investor, Swiss Gourmet, and I set up a small joint venture in Thika town, which they would help pre-finance,” he stated.
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Swiss Gourmet was unable to purchase a required amount of containers of nuts every year in 2013, resulting in the joint venture’s demise.
This development allowed Mbogo’s company, Privamnuts, to sell macadamia nuts on the open market.
“We began building a new plant on our own site in Embu, and we were soon exporting to roughly ten customers, some of whom had previously purchased through Swiss Gourmet. Others were secured through cold outreach and sample submissions. By 2016, we were shipping 12 containers per year and had up to 500 workers in our factory,” he explained.
Mbogo mentioned that he struggled with cash flow and the high cost of certification when he first started.
“Buyers from the United States or Europe will not purchase from you if the plant is not properly certified. Getting to that position is expensive and time-consuming
“We started with HACCP, the most fundamental food safety management system. This indicated that buyers were willing to buy from us. We gradually increased our food safety standards,” he explained.
Privamnuts has the capacity to process approximately 7,000 metric tonnes of raw nuts each year.
“The amount of raw nuts we have been able to process has increased substantially from approximately 1,500 tonnes in 2016 to around 4,000 in 2020, but this is still far below what the mill is capable of generating
“Currently we sell all of our product months in advance, and even if we processed to our full capacity 7,000 tonnes a year, the demand would still be much higher than our supply,” Mbogo told the BBC.
A kilogramme of raw macadamia nuts sells for between Ksh 70 and Ksh 160. A 20-foot container of shelled macadamia nuts now sells for up to Ksh 40.3 million.
