Listed agri-business firm Kakuzi PLC has released its fourth Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report today.
With the Kakuzi ESG 2022 Report release, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed superfoods grower maintains its position as the first agricultural segment counter on the local bourse to voluntarily release its ESG report this year.
The State Department for Environment and Climate Change, Principal Secretary Eng. Festus Ng’eno, in a speech read on his behalf by the Ministry’s Secretary of Administration, Mr John Elungata, said the partnership between government and the private sector for sustainability holds immense potential for driving transformative change.
“If we are to achieve a sustainable future, accelerating towards a low carbon world needs people with a purpose, as outlined in the Kakuzi ESG report,” he said. He added, “This report embodies a vision that exceeds financial consideration and brings to bear the fact that businesses can serve as catalysts for positive growth.”
Following the recent signing of the Climate Change Amendment Act 2023, PS Ng’eno urged private sector players such as Kakuzi to explore opportunities in the carbon markets as the government continues to strengthen partnerships by providing enabling policies and legal and regulatory reforms. He said the carbon market legal framework outlined in the new law will enable the private sector to engage in sustainable community projects that will help alleviate poverty and achieve meaningful development.
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Speaking at the report’s launch, aptly themed ‘For People with Purpose’, Kakuzi PLC Managing Director Mr Chris Flowers said the firm consistently tracks and measures its ESG impacts.
“Since 2017, we have scientifically tracked and measured our carbon footprint and published this as part of our annual ESG report. We support environmental sustainability and biodiversity and continue to identify the environmental impacts of all our activities and minimise and mitigate these responsibly. We achieve this by complying with all environmental legislation, assessing the main environmental impacts of our business activities, establishing programmes to minimise environmental impacts, and providing appropriate training to our employees.”
Mr Flowers lauded Kakuzi’s decision to invest in climate-smart agriculture to mitigate the impact of drought in horticultural and macadamia nut operations. This aligns with President William Ruto’s initiative to convene African leaders for the Green Industrialisation Initiative. Kakuzi intends to continue with this strategy to increase its areas under precision irrigation and its planned water storage capacity increase.
One of Kakuzi’s significant highlights in 2022 was becoming the first commercial exporter of African-grown avocados to China with nine containers of quality export-grade avocados. China’s exports totalled 527 avocado fruit containers of about 11.4 million kilogrammes exported to Europe and China during the year.
Kakuzi also established an Avocado Academy, which trains farmers to increase their knowledge base in avocado production. Using social media, the Academy trains farmers in Kenya and other countries who incorporate the critical learnings on their farms to improve their avocado yields. The training is done through platforms such as YouTube using short topical videos to upskill their avocado knowledge. Farmers are taught best practices that explain topics ranging from seedling and harvest stages to export using easy-to-digest content. The Academy also uses Facebook to send texts, which is instrumental in capacity-building.
For the community around Kakuzi, the superfood grower offered health services, reaching over 549 community members: 258 gents and 291 ladies. The services offered were cervical and prostate cancer screening, HPV vaccine for young girls, COVID-19 vaccination, VCT, and nutritional assessment.
Earlier this year, Kakuzi PLC assumed a New Brand Identity underlining a ‘Growing Together’ Commitment to its stakeholders, underscoring its commitments to agricultural development for the domestic and export markets. The new Kakuzi identity, the firm’s first defined brand visual system and strategy in 95 years, defines who Kakuzi is with utmost clarity and pledges to meet the needs of its community, its Staff, its customers and business partners, its shareholders, and Regulatory and Government leaders, among others. The new Kakuzi brand is also aligned with the national agricultural transformation agenda, with sustainability and climate-smart agriculture at its core.
