Sunflower, the golden product of Lira District
Celina Opio Omara, appears to be in her late 60s, but despite her age, she walks hurriedly, her eyes fixed in the direction of Akony Kori Golden Sunflower factory located, 6km from Lira town
By Alice Emasu
Celina Opio Omara, appears to be in her late 60s, but despite her age, she walks hurriedly, her eyes fixed in the direction of Akony Kori Golden Sunflower factory located, 6km from Lira town.
She walks from her home to the factory every day and reports at the office before her employees. But she is 15 minutes late today, she usually arrives at 8:00am.
As soon as she settles at her desk, she calls out for her workers to convene and addresses and distributes work to all of them. Her employees, who are mainly young farmers are good time managers
At 9.00am, Omara leaves the factory for Akony Kori shop in Lira who bring sunflower seeds for sale. Others, however, come to buy sunflower cooking oil, grind maize or to seek technical services related to sunflower production.
Sunflower seeds are sold at sh300 per kg. At the shop, women trickle in one by one and buy cooking oil packed in plastic containers. Under the brand name ‘Golden Flower Pure Sunflower Cooking Oil.’ The Akony Kori cooking oils costs between sh500 and sh15,000 depending on the size of the container.
Susana Akot, a middle-aged mother of five, is one of the regular clients here.
She says: “Compared to other brands of locally processed cooking oil, Golden Sunflower oil tastes good. It is delicious and my children love it.â€
Caroline Adong, a renown business woman in Lira says many farmers, particularly women derive their livelihoods from the production of sunflower seeds, which they sell to both the local and national manufacturing cooking oils companies. She says farmers have taken to the growing of sunflower because the crop is easy to grow.
“It can be inter-cropping and it is not labour intensive,†says Adong, who owns Jeicos Guest House, one of the best accommodations facilities in Lira.
“Many women consume this product because they know how it is processed. Some women however, consume it to support of the efforts of women.â€
Sylvia Oteng, an economist and the brain behind the sunflower production in the north, says out of 100 farmers, 70% grow sunflower. The products are consumed mainly by education and religious institutions in the area.
Although she is proud to be associated with the crop production, Oteng hails her sister Omara saying she played a big role in mobilising farmers to grow the crop. She says the idea of producing sunflower oil was hatched in 1980, a time when Uganda was experiencing an acute shortage of cooking oil due to the economic crisis Amin caused when he expelled Asian businessmen from Uganda.
“Without my sister, there would be nothing like sunflower business in the entire northern region today,†says Oteng.
Oteng says she was in Italy pursuing a masters course in economics when Amin expelled the Asians. When she returned in the early 80s to write a dissertation, Uganda lacked essential commodities such as soap and cooking oil.
“I reflected on how the Asian traders extracted edible oil from cotton seed and thought it was possible to get the same products from sunflower seeds.
“I focussed my dissertation on the importance of cooking oil in the diet of Ugandans. On completion of the course, I had conceived an idea to establish the cooking oil factory,†she says.
“With support from the Canadian High Commission and the late Bishop Kihangire Scalabrini of Gulu Catholic Diocese, I installed the first ever sunflower factory in Gulu,†she adds.
She says initially, the Canadians provided the sunflower seeds worth 17 tons. The seeds were distributed to individual farmers throughout the Diocese of Gulu.
With the exposure and experience from her Italian friends, Oteng acquired two machines, which were installed in Gulu, and the manufacturing of sunflower cooking oil began.
By 1987, sunflower flourished in Gulu. Unfortunately, the neighbouring districts like Lira and Apac were not willing to embrace the project partly because the crop was grown for home consumption.
Omara says they worked together with the Catholic Diocese and introduced barter trade. She says at that time, the Ugandan shilling had depreciated, people had just come out of the war and were reluctant to embrace the sunflower production as an income generating activity.
So it was important to establish a sunflower processing factory in Lira to motivate the farmers who had showed interest. Akony Kori factory and shop which means “let me help you develop,†in Luo, was set up in Lira 1987, to buy sunflowers seeds from farmers and market cooking oil manufactured in Gulu.
However, the birth of Akony Kori factory and shop is today partly responsible for the absence of the sunflower factory in Gulu. Other factors, Omara says includes the 17-year-old insurgency by the Joseph Kony’s rebels.
According to Omara, Akony Kori is currently encouraging farmers in other regions in Uganda to engage in sunflower production.
She calls upon farmers to increase the production of sunflower which fetches good money because of it higher percentage of oil content.
“There are of course many challenges that we face in the production of sunflower oil. Being a woman sometimes creates tension with men who look down upon women,†says Omara.
“I have learnt to live up to the desire of my heart and that is to excel,†she adds, saying that there exists stiff competition in the sector of cooking oil production.
“Although competition is healthy for any business, the one in cooking oil is abnormal due to dumping of inferior cooking oil, which is cheaply priced. This leaves us with the options of either selling our cooking oil below our cost of production, or to horde it until such a time the imported cooking oil is exhausted in the market,†she says.
She however, notes that the most important challenge facing Akony Kori is the presence of the insurgency in the northern part of the country.
The Uganda Investment Authority records show a slow but steady development in the cooking oil industry. It however, estimates that 60%-65% of the raw materials currently used in the production of cooking oil are imported.
Celina Opio Omara, appears to be in her late 60s, but despite her age, she walks hurriedly, her eyes fixed in the direction of Akony Kori Golden Sunflower factory located, 6km from Lira town.
She walks from her home to the factory every day and reports at the office before her employees. But she is 15 minutes late today, she usually arrives at 8:00am.
As soon as she settles at her desk, she calls out for her workers to convene and addresses and distributes work to all of them. Her employees, who are mainly young farmers are good time managers
At 9.00am, Omara leaves the factory for Akony Kori shop in Lira who bring sunflower seeds for sale. Others, however, come to buy sunflower cooking oil, grind maize or to seek technical services related to sunflower production.
Sunflower seeds are sold at sh300 per kg. At the shop, women trickle in one by one and buy cooking oil packed in plastic containers. Under the brand name ‘Golden Flower Pure Sunflower Cooking Oil.’ The Akony Kori cooking oils costs between sh500 and sh15,000 depending on the size of the container.
Susana Akot, a middle-aged mother of five, is one of the regular clients here.
She says: “Compared to other brands of locally processed cooking oil, Golden Sunflower oil tastes good. It is delicious and my children love it.â€
Caroline Adong, a renown business woman in Lira says many farmers, particularly women derive their livelihoods from the production of sunflower seeds, which they sell to both the local and national manufacturing cooking oils companies. She says farmers have taken to the growing of sunflower because the crop is easy to grow.
“It can be inter-cropping and it is not labour intensive,†says Adong, who owns Jeicos Guest House, one of the best accommodations facilities in Lira.
“Many women consume this product because they know how it is processed. Some women however, consume it to support of the efforts of women.â€
Sylvia Oteng, an economist and the brain behind the sunflower production in the north, says out of 100 farmers, 70% grow sunflower. The products are consumed mainly by education and religious institutions in the area.
Although she is proud to be associated with the crop production, Oteng hails her sister Omara saying she played a big role in mobilising farmers to grow the crop. She says the idea of producing sunflower oil was hatched in 1980, a time when Uganda was experiencing an acute shortage of cooking oil due to the economic crisis Amin caused when he expelled Asian businessmen from Uganda.
“Without my sister, there would be nothing like sunflower business in the entire northern region today,†says Oteng.
Oteng says she was in Italy pursuing a masters course in economics when Amin expelled the Asians. When she returned in the early 80s to write a dissertation, Uganda lacked essential commodities such as soap and cooking oil.
“I reflected on how the Asian traders extracted edible oil from cotton seed and thought it was possible to get the same products from sunflower seeds.
“I focussed my dissertation on the importance of cooking oil in the diet of Ugandans. On completion of the course, I had conceived an idea to establish the cooking oil factory,†she says.
“With support from the Canadian High Commission and the late Bishop Kihangire Scalabrini of Gulu Catholic Diocese, I installed the first ever sunflower factory in Gulu,†she adds.
She says initially, the Canadians provided the sunflower seeds worth 17 tons. The seeds were distributed to individual farmers throughout the Diocese of Gulu.
With the exposure and experience from her Italian friends, Oteng acquired two machines, which were installed in Gulu, and the manufacturing of sunflower cooking oil began.
By 1987, sunflower flourished in Gulu. Unfortunately, the neighbouring districts like Lira and Apac were not willing to embrace the project partly because the crop was grown for home consumption.
Omara says they worked together with the Catholic Diocese and introduced barter trade. She says at that time, the Ugandan shilling had depreciated, people had just come out of the war and were reluctant to embrace the sunflower production as an income generating activity.
So it was important to establish a sunflower processing factory in Lira to motivate the farmers who had showed interest. Akony Kori factory and shop which means “let me help you develop,†in Luo, was set up in Lira 1987, to buy sunflowers seeds from farmers and market cooking oil manufactured in Gulu.
However, the birth of Akony Kori factory and shop is today partly responsible for the absence of the sunflower factory in Gulu. Other factors, Omara says includes the 17-year-old insurgency by the Joseph Kony’s rebels.
According to Omara, Akony Kori is currently encouraging farmers in other regions in Uganda to engage in sunflower production.
She calls upon farmers to increase the production of sunflower which fetches good money because of it higher percentage of oil content.
“There are of course many challenges that we face in the production of sunflower oil. Being a woman sometimes creates tension with men who look down upon women,†says Omara.
“I have learnt to live up to the desire of my heart and that is to excel,†she adds, saying that there exists stiff competition in the sector of cooking oil production.
“Although competition is healthy for any business, the one in cooking oil is abnormal due to dumping of inferior cooking oil, which is cheaply priced. This leaves us with the options of either selling our cooking oil below our cost of production, or to horde it until such a time the imported cooking oil is exhausted in the market,†she says.
She however, notes that the most important challenge facing Akony Kori is the presence of the insurgency in the northern part of the country.
The Uganda Investment Authority records show a slow but steady development in the cooking oil industry. It however, estimates that 60%-65% of the raw materials currently used in the production of cooking oil are imported.