THE INTERNSHIP PROGRESSIVE REPORT, AT MIXA FOODS AND

BEVERAGES KISUMU -KENYA.

INTERN NAME: ERNEST T LIKOKO

ORGANIZATION NAME: SUGECO
HOST COMPANY: MIXA FOODS & BEVERAGES
SPONSOR: AFRICA LEAD

INTERNSHIP PERIOD: TWO MONTHS (15/0/2012-10/08/2012).

A WORD OF THANKS TO;

MIXA FOODS AND BEVERAGE, I would first like to give my gratitude
thanks to the director of the company Mr Charles Odira for his humble and
very good heart for supporting me both materially and technically. He is a
person to learn from, giving all of his scarce time to teach and guide me
during my learning time at MIXA, may the almighty bless him and grant
him a positive progress and development in his carrier. Secondly, my many
thanks to Mrs. Herin Odira, the assistance director for her good heart and
making my life at MIXA a memorable stay. Thirdly, to the whole family of
Mr Charles Odira for the support and a humbled heart making my leaving a
regret, I would then wish you a very good and happy life to wisely raise my
little beloved Shally Odira, may God bless you all. Will miss you a lot and
welcome to Tanzania.
AFRICAN LEAD, I am so honored to give my deepest thanks to the whole
AL team led by Madam Kimberly Smith for first of all, seeing our need and
importance for us to receive this practical experience and learning, I on
behalf of all SUGECO members, the interns and my own behalf would like
to thank you and your team very much for giving this chance to us and we
appreciate it very much and promise that we will make use of every single
thing that we have learnt from our host companies, utilize to develop
ourselves, the community and the country at large to ensure food security
and become the champions of African Lead.
SUGECO, I should declare interest here that ,I am so proud to first of all be
a SUGECO member and much important one of the founder members and
the interim manager of our organization (SUGECO). I would first of all like
to thank my beloved organization SUGECO for letting me with this chance
to come and learn all that I was blessed to. But in a special way I would like
to thank the SUGECO management team (SMT) led by our beloved mother
Dr. Anna Andrew Temu (Chairperson), Mr Felix Nandonde (General
Secretary), Mr. Ernest T Likoko (Manager), Mr. Bruno S Kaheta (Treasurer),
Mr. Joseph Massimba (Promoter), Mr. Charles Malaki (Promoter) for their
efforts to see that SUGECO and the members do develop and become a
potential room for the members, community and country development.
BACKGROND INFORMATION

AFRICAN LEAD
Africa Lead is a program sponsored by the U.S. governments Agency for
International Development (USAID). It operates across Sub-Saharan Africa from
three regional offices. Working across public, civil society, university and private
sector institutions, Africa Lead seeks to ensure that there are leaders trained to
maintain a critical mass of food security Champions who will drive agricultureled development by leading and implementing the Regional and National
Agriculture Investment Plans within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Program (CAADP) framework. Africa Lead has regional offices in
Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
What is the U.S. Governments interest in Africa Lead
Feed the Future (FTF) is the U.S. Governments response to the global imperative
to advance comprehensive food security. When the leaders of the G8 donor
countries met in 2009, they established a framework for coordinated and
comprehensive action among host governments, donors, civil society, the private
sector and other stakeholders. This collaborative global effort centers around
country-owned processed and plans to improve food security.
Africa Lead is a key capacity-building arm of the FTF initiative. It marks a radical
departure from USAIDs customary level of engagement with host-country
governments. FTF calls not simply for host-country partnership long a tenet of
most projects but for genuine host-country leadership.

What does the Africa Lead program do?

The project is providing four main services to participating countries and regions:
1. Leadership Training
Module 1: 5 days course to deepen understanding of CAADP
investment plans
Module 2: 3-4 day course, tailored to each country, equipping
ACAADP leaders to operationalize investment plans.
2. Innovative Learning Experiences through Partnership
Providing logistical and financial support to pair prominent
agriculture institutions and innovative agribusiness with talented
individuals.
3. Institutional Capacity Needs Assessments

Analyzing capacity strengths and gaps in relation to CAADP

leadership and implementation roles

4. Online Listing of Upcoming Short Courses

Developing and mounting a searchable online database of current
training opportunities in agriculture, food security and management.

SUGECO

About SUGECO
Started July 2011 registered on Friday 8th July 2011 with cooperative Registration
No. MGR 620. Started with 40 founder members: mainly SUA undergraduate
finalist and post graduate students in 2011, whom were aspiring to start their own
agribusinesses after they graduate from SUA, and academic staff members in the
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness (DAEA)
Benefit of SUGECO to members:

Training on agribusiness entrepreneurship

Business networking opportunities

Lobbying group for members interests

Information sharing

B2B relationships to improve access to business services

Specific Objectives
1. To develop training framework and curriculum that will:
o Transform minds of graduate towards agribusiness self-employment
o Provide leadership, management and skills development
2. To establish institutions that will encourage
o Technology transfer
o Access to financial services
o Access to information
o Access to domestic, regional and international markets
1. Business Networking to reduce transaction costs
o To support business startups and sustain- ability through provision of business
support services
o Run agribusiness incubators

o Establish agribusiness services provision

4. Grant applications to support investment into public goods / services that
will
o Enhance business startup to improve access to finance, market, information,
technology and networking
o Improve / enhance dialogue with government on agribusiness development

mfb

Mixa Foods & Beverages

P.O. Box 2795 Kisumu
E-Mail info@mixafoods.co.ke
Ring road, Kilo Junction, Kisumu
Tel.0721-280907, 0733-714584
Business Description
We are involved in agribusiness activities which include
Growing of fruits, processing and marketing
Processing of Milk to make Yoghurt, Maziwa lala and Ghee
Grafting and budding of fruit trees
Fabrication and use of cost effective equipment in food processing
Training on the above aspects to communities and individuals who are
interested in going to business

Growing of fruits, processing and marketing

We grow passion fruits and the farm produce is processed to make passion
fruit juice and thus adding on the value and also preserving the fruit so that

there is no farm wastage due to lack of market. The processed product is

then marketed within Kisumu Municipality. Other fruit crops which we do
not grow are bought from the market and processed. These include
Mangoes, Citrus, Avocado and Pineapples.
Processing of Milk to make Yoghurt, Maziwa lala and Ghee
We process milk to make the above products thereby apart from adding
value to the milk; the milk is preserved such that it does not have to be sold
the same day it is milked from the cow. The nutritional condition of the
community where we operate is also improved.
Grafting and budding of fruit trees
When fruit trees are propagated from seeds, it takes too long for the plants to
produce fruits. Grafting and budding ensures that the plants produce fruits
within 18 months of planting. The procedure also helps to improve varieties.
The seedlings resulting in this procedure fetch an average of Ksh 150
compared to non grafted or budded which fetch an average of Ksh 10. The
entrepreneur is therefore able to get a huge profit within a limited period of
time and moreover the procedure does not require a big land area such that it
can be done even with very limited land.

Fabrication and use of cost effective equipment in food processing

We make equipment for food processing that includes Peanut Sheller, Peanut
Roaster, Peanut Decorticator, Peanut Flour mill & Peanut Butter Mill.

These equipment aids in peanut processing to produce peanut flour or

butter. Moreover, the Sheller reduces tremendously the tedious work
involved in peanut shelling and frees the farmers hands to perform other
duties.
Training on the above aspects to communities and individuals who are
interested in business
We train groups who are interested in food processing, budding and grafting
of fruit trees and food processing. The arrangement is that they can come to
our facility and train before they can start on their own or we could go to
their facility if we are dealing with a group that is already started.
In the process of our operations, we have collaborated with among others

Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Labor
Lake Basin Development Authority
Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group(MICH)
Plan Kenya
Community Mobilisation Against Desertification(C-MAD)

Inter Diocesan Christian Community Services Kisumu (IDCCS)

Nehemiah International(Miwani)
(ICRAF) Millennium Villages Project
BACKGROUND
Mixa Foods & Beverages
Mixa foods and Beverages (MFB) is a business that was registered in November
2003.The director of the business is Mr. Charles Ochiel Odira. MFB processes
peanut s to produce peanut butter and also fabricates peanut processing equipment

like peanut Sheller, roasters, decorticators, peanut butter and peanut flour mills.
Apart from the firms own processing, there are over fifteen processors who use
the firms facilities to process their own peanut butter which they package and sell.
MFB has directly employed five people, a lady and four men in the processing
section and three men in fabrication section.
Steps in Peanut Processing
Peanuts from the farms are plucked from the plants and sundried. The nuts are then
shelled using a peanut sheller developed by mixa foods and beverages. The
machine called Mixa Dual Peanut sheller is able to shell peanuts and it separates
the shells from the nuts.
The nuts are sorted out in a sorting rack whereby the foreign materials are removed
including shriveled nuts.
The nuts are fed into a Mixa peanut roaster which uses charcoal as energy source.
The roaster uses one gorogoro of charcoal in order to roast 16kgs of peanuts. The
roaster will evenly roast the peanuts in 30-45 minutes.
The roasted nuts are then cooled on an airing rack. Once the cooling is complete,
the nuts are loaded into a Mixa peanut decorticator which separates the outer coat
from the kernels. The Kernels are then loaded into Mixa peanut butter mill which
is able to mill 2kgs of peanuts into fine paste within 7-10 minutes. The peanuts are
then packed into 250g, 400g and 800g cans that retail at 70, 130, 250 shillings
respectively.
Two kilograms of peanuts will sell at a profit of Ksh 150 after processing.MFB
processes an average of 16kgs daily at the premises and the outlets currently are
retail shops within Kisumu, though it is expected that the market will expand to the

supermarkets in Kisumu and other parts of the country and even to other East
African countries since the director has been going under training by Export
Promotion Council in order to make the firm export ready.
Background of the business
The director is a horticulturist by profession. One day when he was in the field in
oyugis town, he came across a peanut butter mill that was imported into the
country for a widows and orphans community based organization. His intention
was to buy the equipment but when he asked the attendants about how much it was
bought for, they did not know and they referred him to the local priest whom he
traced to no avail. He kept dreaming of owning a peanut mill. One thing that he
could remember about the mill was that the body was made from very impressive
stainless steel material.
His patience ran out and it occurred to him in a flash that he could fabricate an
equipment by himself as he thought of the words of his former schoolmate who
used to say that it is better to try and fail than living in the agony of what it might
have been. He tried several times to use the blender principle but I did not succeed
much. He got encouragement from his friend Philip Oloo Oriaro both in words and
financial support. His success came when he included a method of heating the
peanuts while being milled and thus the equipment liquefied the fats in the peanuts
into oil which produced peanut butter which spreads up to bottom of a can. Other
processing equipment would need external oil to make the butter pasty. The mill
was so perfect that most people who tasted its product kept asking for more. Many
traders started coming to ask if they could mill some of their peanuts for sale and
pay for the services of the equipment. This went on for a while but it became
inconveniencing when people would come to his house very early in the morning

in order to mill peanuts. He quickly looked for a business premise and started
making peanut butter. He employed someone to take care of the milling process.
One day as he was in the business premise, someone going by the name Logans
Wandera who was an entrepreneurship officer with a local NGO (IDCCS) came to
ask for where he could buy the equipment from. It quickly occurred to him that
there was another business opportunity. They discussed and he wanted three
machines to take to community based organizations they were working with in
Ndhiwa, Rarieda and Ugenya. He fabricated the equipment on a deposit of 70% of
the total cost of the equipment. When he finished, he was paid the rest of the
balance. The trend repeated with a number of individuals and organizations. He
inscribed a label on the equipment which indicated that it was a peanut mill and it
was made by Mixa Foods and Beverages followed by a telephone number
(0721280907) and serial number.
The clients who had bought the equipment came back to say the mill was very
effective but their snag in the business was roasting peanuts since the peanuts had
to be roasted before milling. At that time, he was also struggling with the same
problem. One day when he went home and it was time for him to travel back to
Kisumu, my mother Christabel Anyango insisted that she had to roast for him some
groundnuts to carry. He watched how she did it. She mixed sand with the nuts and
heated as she agitated them in a sufuria. Instantly a new idea on how he could
solve the roasting problem was born. The nuts were so evenly roasted (an aspect
which is very important in peanut butter making). He developed his mothers idea
into equipment which could roast 16kgs of groundnuts using only three quarters of
a gorogoro of charcoal. Only this time the sand did not mix with the groundnuts
and the heat from the charcoal was contained in an insulated cage to maximize on
the charcoal energy.

Having solved that problem, more orders for mills and roasters came. One client
who benefited on

the milling services Steve Odero used to decorticate his roasted

nuts by rubbing them against a sack using a hollowed bottom of a plate. Whenever
his butter was seen by clients at the firms business premise, customers would only
ask for his butter because they were impressive both in look and also in taste. He
developed Steves idea into a rotary machine that used electrical energy to
decorticate peanuts.
Mixa Foods and Beverages became known for peanut processing and whenever
clients were looking for equipment for processing peanuts, they would go to MFB.
One day some clients from Busia were looking for a variety of peanut processing
equipment: peanut Sheller, roaster, decorticators, and Peanut butter and flour mills.
He had never seen a peanut Sheller and peanut flour mill before, let alone
fabricating one. However, they told him they were relying on him for all the
equipment since they had looked for this equipment all over the country only to be
directed to us by someone they talked to on their way from Nairobi to MFB in
Kisumu. They told him to give them the cost for all the equipment. He did. They
paid a deposit of 70% on all the equipment. Two new equipment peanut Sheller
and peanut flour mill were born.
Now MFB specializes in peanut processing , fabrication of peanut processing
equipment and on the long journey, the firm has been assisted by a number
government bodies namely Ministry of Agriculture who direct a number of clients,
Nyanza Province enterprise development office for invitation to exhibitions and
trade fairs, Lake Basin Development Authority through the MD Mr. Engineer
Kabok and the former Agricultural manager Philip Oloo Oriaro for provision of
space at the ASK Show Kisumu, Export Promotion Council for variety of training
on product development and facilitation of acquisition of a

website,

www.mixafoods.co.ke , KIRDI has given the firm a lot of publicity to people who
are looking for equipment, KEBS for advise on which materials to use on food
processing and also standardization of our butter among others.
Other enterprises
Mixa foods & Beverages is also involved in raising of various horticultural
seedlings. Mangoes, citrus, avocado, Passion fruits are some of the seedlings which
are raised and grafted by Mixa Foods. The rootstocks are planted in a nursery, after
they attain a pencil thickness; the seedlings are grafted by desirable scions. The
resultant seedlings are sold in the locally for planting within the surrounding
regions of Kisumu county and beyond. The following varieties are produced.
a.Mangoes
Ngowe, tommy atkins, kent, apple, sensation, Vandyke, sensation, Haden
B. Citrus
Washington navel, Valencia, Tangerine
c. Avocado
Fuerte, Hass

d. Passion Fruits
Purple, Yellow and Sweet Calabash

Business Challenges

 Cost of business advertisement too high, e.g cost of exhibitions

Lack of a strategic location as business location for business self
advertisement

Rapid increment of raw material costs for fabricating the equipment making
stable equipment costs difficult to maintain

High costs of consumable materials for polishing stainless steel

Fluctuating groundnut prices making it difficult to maintain a constant
product price
Unpredictable equipment buying pattern, sometimes too many orders at a
time and sometimes too little

ON DUTY DAILY ACTIVITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT MFB

WEEK 1: (18/06/2012 - 23/06/2012)

The week started by arriving at MIXA FOODS AND BEVERAGES COMPANY

KISUMU premises on the 18th June 2012 at 8:00 am, and welcomed by the
director, Mr. Charles Odira, the assistant director Mrs., Herine Odira and the
companys workers.
I was then taken for the orientation into different departments, such as production
unit, where the peanut butter equipments are made and later to the peanut
processing unit to see how the machines and various stages of peanut processing,
the outlet shop, the farm where groundnuts and passion fruit are grown and the
cookies production unit headed by Mrs. Herine Odira.
Then the week continued with the normal activities of making a manual roster
machine, peanut butter processing and the service providing to customers who
were coming for peanut butter processing for sale. The week ended by finishing the
manual roster and delivered to the customer.

WEEK 2: (25/06/2012 - 30/06/2012)

The week started by making various equipments such as a peanut Sheller,
decorticator, and the mill for and preparing for the business exhibition which was
to be held from the 20th June 2012 in Kisii. A sum of six machines and other
equipments were prepared for the show.

The week continued and ended by doing normal activities of making peanut butter
as well as equipments making, and I got a chance to be taught on how to make
peanut butter.

WEEK 3: (02/07/2012 07/07/2012)

In this week there were few activities done, we went on with our normal
responsibilities of making peanut butter and as of a benefit of good training from
my fellow workers and instructors Mr Jackson and Jonston I was now in a good
position and able to process the butter.
We also on the 9th July 2012 received a client from Mombasa who came to
purchase three peanut butter processing equipments which includes the peanut
roster, decorticator, and the mill but also taking with him a number of 5 bottles of
800g and 5 400g of peanut butter as samples.

WEEK 4: (09/07/2012 14/07/2012)

In this week I assumed full supervisory responsibilities as my director left for the
Kisii business show. I was the man in charge in the whole company and all the
departments, supervising the technicians, the processors as well as the sales.
I ended the week with great performance as we were able to make two manual
rosters, two mill machines and started fabricating the first electric roster in the
companys history of equipments making.

WEEK 5: (16/07/2012 21/07/2012)

This was again a show week we started preparing for the Kisumu trade show, the
preparation took as two days as we had already made some equipments waiting for
customers purchase. We then used the equipments for the show demonstrating
various stapes on making peanut butter and other product s such as cookies,
charcoal and the equipments themselves.
I and the whole team were fully involved in the show as our tent had attracted a
good number of customers, buying our peanut products as well as pressing orders
for the equipments. And in this show we managed to get four customers who
ordered for the full chain peanut processing equipments.

WEEK 6: (23/07/2012 28/07/2012)

The week started with the normal activities of peanut butter processing as well as
the equipments fabricating. We also started making another new and well modified
electric roster for the customer in Nairobi.
And the week ended by finishing the two mill machines that were to be ready for
the customers who had pressed their orders.

WEEK 7: (30/07/2012 04/08/2012)

The week started by receiving the guest, Dr. Benard Muok, the director of
programmes from African Centre for Technology Studies on the 30th July 2012 at
9:00 am, who came at the MIXA FOODS and BEVERAGES COMPANY to
interview the director and the workers on especially the working environment
challenges and innovation issues. This was a study conducted by the World Bank
development programme aiming at identifying and linking to appropriate donors
and other funders the innovative SMEs for help and other necessary business
development take offs.
We ended the week by starting making the manual roster for the customer from
Uma bay which was then delivered to the customer by the director himself. Then
also came a lady customer to mill dried rosella into powder form which she said
has a complete requirements for the body such as A,B,C,D and E, whereby she also
said many people miss vitamin B and C by boiling the flowers to make juicy. She
also went on saying that vitamin A and D do not easily dissolve in water so
grinding the flower assures the maximum exploitation of all the vitamins

WEEK 8: (06/08/2012 09/08/2012)

The week started by receiving the JICA delegation on the 6th August 2012 at 9:00
am, who came to visit the company to see how the company performs as well as
knowing the challenges faced by the company. The aim of that visit was to first
know the companys business environment and the challenges but also asses and
choose the best to support as JICA has this project to support the SMEs on a
number of aspects such as in working premises, acquiring the best machines and
equipments for the workshop etc. The delegation had a chance to see how MIXA
does and they were also impressed by the fact that the company was able to host an
intern for learning. JICA promised to work hand in hand with the MIXA as they
discovered a lot of potentials the company has for job creation, innovation,
technology development and a positive impact on the national, regional
development.
The week continued by normal processing activities and ended by such a sad
moment of saying bye to everyone who was like my own family, living and
working happily.

THINGS LEANT

During my two months internship training I was able to learn the following
1. Business Management
2. Financial Management
3. Working under pressure skills
4. Food Processing, ie peanut butter, peanut flour, rosella processing, and
cookies making.
5. Time Management skills
6. Supervision Skills
7. Team working approach
8. Marketing
9. Negotiation Skills
10.Risk Management

RECOMMENDATIONS

I would like to recommend the following to African Lead.

1. To continue working and collaborating with SUGECO
2. To look for different hosts from different regions
3. To increase a number of internship opportunities
4. To make this opportunities sustainable
5. To use the interns as champions to impact their communities
6. To expose and invite the interns and the members into different economic
and business workshops, forums and exposure visits.

SOME GOOD MEMORIES AT MIXA FOODS AND BEVERAGES

At Kisumu show demonstrating to the customer on how to make charcoal

from wastes

Participating in the farm activities

Giving SUGECO greetings at African Lead headquarters in Nairobi

The East African zone boss Kimberley and her team admiring solar tunda
products from Solar tunda Tanzania

Making peanut butter

Labeling

Visited by JICA

My director and his assistant at work

THANKS AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL IN THIS TRAMENDOUS EFFORT