Oil Milling Capacity Building
As a non-profit business, we are working toward covering all of the overhead costs of our Internship and Agricultural Extension programs through our agribusinesses. The oil mill is one of our promising income sources. We are excited to be in our very second season of this business, as we work toward partnering with local farmers who grow sunflower seed and sell the harvest to KT for a fair market value. In October 2020 we finally received our certification from the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS)!
Now we are looking for assistance to expand our capacity for this coming farming season. Farmers who cooperatively grew sunflowers for KT last year went home very happy after selling their harvest to KT. We would like to significantly scale up our operations to help as many as 400+ farmers in 2021 to be able to earn an income from growing sunflowers. To expand this fast, we need your help.
There are a number of costs involved:
- Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) certification
- Labeling and bottling costs
- Operator and nutrition specialist salaries
- Product transport costs (from farmer and to market)
- Purchasing power for the 2021 sunflower harvest
- Warehouse expansion
We have factored the above costs into our overall processing costs. As we said, we are targeting 400+ small-scale farmers for 2021. Each farmer will grow approximately 250 kg, for which he will receive $96 USD. Transport will cost about $5 USD per 250 kg and processing and packaging about $33 USD. This means that the total cost for 250 kg is $134 USD, $96 USD of which goes directly into the hands of the farmer as earned income. While this may not seem like much in Western contexts, here in Tanzania where poor farmers are living on less than $1.19 USD per day, it is significant!
KT is trying to raise $53,600 USD to jump start the milling business and $14,400 USD for the warehouse extension for a total of $68,000 USD.
While we would like to jump into the market at this capacity, the fact is we will work with whatever God supplies. Every gift of $134 USD will result in $96 USD income for crop sales in a farmer’s hands year after year.
Sustainability is the goal of KT and self-reliance the goal we have for every small-scale farmer. Consider being a part of this oil milling capacity building.
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