Tuskys sweet potato bread employs 300 small farmers

Tuskys Supermarkets has signed up about 300 smallholder sweet potato farmers to supply the tuber to the retail chain’s bakery for making its new line of bread, scones, cake and cookies.

The retailer is currently piloting the sweet potato-flavoured products in its Nairobi stores, targeting health conscious consumers.

Tuskys chief operating officer Peter Leparachao says the retail chain is banking on the orange-fleshed sweet potato variety that is tasty and high in vitamin A to grow sales.

“The uptake has been high as people get conscious about their health. We want to roll it out to all our branches once farmers assure us they can meet the demand,” said Mr Leparachao on Monday in an interview.

The farmers contracted are from Homa Bay, Migori, Kisumu, Siaya, Bungoma and Busia counties.

The total area under plantation by these farmers is about 70 acres; with typical size farms measuring between 0.5 acres and 0.25 acres.

The sweet potato products is Tuskys’ latest bakery innovation that includes other flavours such as multi-grain, sugar-free, carrot and brown breads.

Sweet potato is ranked as Kenya’s third staple after maize and Irish potatoes.

The Tuskys’ sweet potato bakery project is part of a programme funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

It is aimed at reducing malnutrition, combating vitamin A deficiency, and improving incomes for rural households.

The project dubbed Mama Sasha (Sweet potato Action for Security and Health in Africa) is being implemented by the Lima-based International Potato Center (CIP).

Around 80 per cent of Kenya’s pre-school children, and 17 per cent of pregnant women are deficient in vitamin A, according to the World Health Organisation data.

Mr Leparachao said the supermarket uses 40 per cent orange-fleshed sweet potato puree and 60 per cent wheat in baking the products.

Tuskys currently purchases 500 kilogrammes daily of the orange-type sweet potato puree from Organi Limited – a joint venture between diaspora-based Kenyan investor Consolata Bryant and the Homa Bay county government.

This is enough to make 3,155 loaves of bread that retail at Sh55 each. Sweet potato bread is currently only baked from the Tuskys’ headquarters along Mombasa Road.

A kilogramme of orange-fleshed sweet potato puree is sold to Tuskys at Sh51 per kilogramme, said Organi’s project coordinator Philip Kosambo.

Dr Penina Muoki, a researcher at CIP, reckons that substituting 50 per cent of wheat flour for orange-fleshed sweet potato puree is estimated to reduce the cost of producing bread and buns by 13 per cent.

“The puree provides a cost –cutting avenue while providing consumers with a good tasting and healthy product with vitamin A,” said Dr Muoki.
Organi Ltd has a sweet potato processing plant located in Ringa township, about 75 kilometres to the south of Kisumu city.
Making the sweet potato puree involves washing the fresh roots, peeling, boiling and later mashing them.

The thick pulp is then packaged in freezers and transported overnight to Nairobi.

Organi said it buys fresh sweet potato at Sh14 per kilogram, which is double the average of between Sh600 and Sh800 per 100-kg bag offered to farmers by middlemen.