Sunflower Seed Milling

Sunflower seeds are milled into oil for cooking and high-protein cakes for cattle food. Tanzanians use a large quantity of sunflower oil for cooking. Many of the villagers keep one or more cows for milk production. The cows are usually kept in a stable and need feeding, as each family uses the area around the house to produce cash crops such as coffee, as well as bananas. We have three investments in sunflower seed milling businesses. Mr Munisi is based in Mbweera, a village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, about 25km from Moshi. Mr Munisi rented capacity on an old machine for a number of years and our investment has enabled him to set up for himself. Mr Gambalela, a retired army officer, is located south of Moshi. He has successfully started up some other businesses and is diversifying into sunflower seeds. He expects to encourage local farmers to convert to growing sunflowers, which will help him source seeds more cheaply than buying from traders. Mr Mengisen has started a mill near Babati, south of Arusha, near Tanzania’s primary sunflower seed growing region. He is already operating one mill in Moshi, which is running successfully. Each machine typically creates a job for one or two operators, a business manager (generally the entrepreneur) and a watchman.