By Lyzzie Owade

Kaloleni coconut processor Cosmas Mole is recruiting farmers from December 2025 to meet the high demand for its value-added coconut oil and syrups. Each farmer will need to deliver 500 coconuts within three months and will be paid Sh15 to Sh20 per nut, with Cosmas covering transport and processing.

Cosmas, who has been in the coconut business for 15 years, initially sold coconuts to Tanzania, where prices were higher than in Kenya. “I was paying Sh7 for each coconut if you include delivery and the person who is dehusking. We would sell this from Sh8 to Sh10 in Tanzania, where coconut was in high demand,” he said. At his peak, he could supply 12,000 coconuts a week, earning between Sh10,000 and Sh16,000.

However, demand, which was already low in Kenya, then fell in Tanzania too, and Cosmas and other traders approached the Kenya Coconut Direct Authority (KCDA) which is now called Nuts and Oil Crops Directorate( NOCD)

“We went to seek advice on how this challenge could be addressed, and that’s how we were taught value addition,” he said. KCDA trained about 100 people in groups of 15 on processing coconuts into oil, soap, syrup, lotion, and other products.

“We were 15 people in our group, only focused on virgin oil. but since we were all startups, we could not sell it because we had no market in place and the oil was too expensive for the locals to buy. My partners could not get any allowance to cover this, which made them quit the project.”

When KCDA came to follow up on the project, Cosmas was the only one left, and working alone. KCDA linked him to agricultural shows where he could take his products.

This saw him add coconut syrup too, which buyers use as jam on bread. He started the syrup with just Sh4,500, which he used to buy coconuts and buckets for storing coconut milk for fermentation. He began by making 20 litres a month of the oil, using roughly 500 coconuts.

He had a ready supply for this volume. “When I was taking coconut to Tanzania, I built some connections with the farmers, so they just knew that I would buy their coconut after three months. That’s when it matures well and can be used to make oil,” he said.“Also, I was buying coconuts at Sh3 to Sh4 each at that time, whereas now I buy them for around Sh15 to Sh20,” he said.

For the oil, which he produces much more of, one litre of coconut oil requires 31 nuts.

He retails the oil at Sh1,600, with wholesale at Sh1,200, and a litre of the syrup for Sh1,500, and now maintains sales agents across the Coast region. For clients further away, he sends parcels by bus, with the client paying the fare.

In his peak season, is now producing around 100 litres of oil a month and around 40 litres of syrup, from 2,500 coconuts, generating a monthly profit of about Sh51,000 for the oil, and Sh12,000 for the syrup jam.

But the prices and availability of his raw materials remain seasonal. “Like other crops, coconuts have their season, and when it rains, coconuts are not always available. Their cost can also rise, to even Sh30 to Sh50 per piece, which is a higher cost than the selling prices for my products. This difficulty is always the case between May and September. During this season, production is always low, and I can only do 50 to 60 litres of oil and often no syrup,” he said.