Former Thika Town Member of Parliament & 2022 Kiambu County gubernatorial runner-up Patrick Wainaina alias ‘Jungle’ is the owner of Avocado and More (EPZ) Ltd (K) formerly Jungle Macs EPZ, a Thika-based agricultural company currently facing auction over unpaid dues owed to Stanbic Bank.
The company purchases organic products, mainly avocado and macadamia nuts, from small-scale holders primarily from the Mt. Kenya counties of Kiambu, Muranga, Nyeri, Embu, and Meru and processes them into edible kernels, which are exported to various market destinations. The company holds ISO 22000 certification and was awarded the Kenya Top 100 SME award in 2020. The company organizes farmers into 42 clusters and supports their development through CSR and Fair Trade Premium.
At its peak, Jungle Macs EPZ accounted for more than half of the country’s total
macadamia production, including 80% of its organic macadamia processing, working with more than 100,000 small-scale farmers, field agents, transporters and factory workers,
creating a significant number of direct and indirect job opportunities.
Jungle Macs EPZ history
Patrick Wainaina founded Jungle Macs EPZ out of a mission to lower the country’s high unemployment rates.
“It’s a big problem when your brothers, sisters, and cousins are all unemployed,” he told The CEO Magazine in a past interview. “So I thought there must be something I could do about it.”
Wainaina, a former production engineer at the Kenya Nut Company, used the skills and knowledge he gained to branch out and establish his company in 2004 under the initial name, Sawa Africa EPZ. At first, the company specialised in producing macadamia and cashew nuts.
The company later changed its name to Jungle Nuts and, over the years, continued to grow, eventually reaching one of Patrick’s main objectives – to employ 2,000 people.
“We need to create many more jobs and we need to have an idea that creates jobs – not just white-collar jobs but blue-collar jobs as well. We need to lead the youth to be able to generate jobs so that everybody is able to employ two or three people,” Patrick said at the time.
The company prioritised support to farmers, with Jungle emphasizing that they are key to ensuring the supply of quality products to customers.
“We take our farmers very seriously because that is where the value chain begins,” Patrick said. “We are very careful about our farmers because they are our number one suppliers. Next to them come our workers. Here at Jungle, we say we are nuts by choice because everybody is so wired and passionate about what they do.”
To further support its farmers, the company developed two apps, J-Shamba and J-Hela, which streamline and safeguard the purchasing process. Farmers are registered through J-Shamba, and the app can be connected to a set of scales and a printer via Bluetooth when it comes time for purchasing.
“‘J’ stands for jungle and ‘shamba’ means farm,” Patrick explained. “When we developed J-Shamba, we were addressing two issues; pricing and weight. We use electronic scales and make sure that the price is set in our server.” The system also delivers a personalised experience for farmers.
J-Shamba also offered training to farmers on the best ways to store the nuts and proper harvesting techniques. The second app, J-Hela, handles money transfers.
“It’s very important to ensure that farmers get their money in a timely fashion. When we purchase from the farmer using the app, we can pay them immediately for their produce.”
Jungle Nuts rebranded to Jungle Macs EPZ and focused on organic foods, producing organic macadamias, cashews and avocado (exported fresh to Europe), and organic dried fruit. It also produces macadamia oil, avocado oil, and moringa.
The company later expanded its portfolio, encompassing the export of avocado and coffee to markets abroad.
