About Farmerco

About Us

A Leading Voice in Low-emission Alternatives

Farmerco Industries Ltd is a private company duly incorporated under the laws of Uganda. It is one of the leading agro-industrial companies in Uganda.

Farmerco owns and operates a manufacturing facility that produces rectified spirit. The factory sits on a 19-acre campus in Western Uganda and was financed by both equity and debt from the Uganda Development Bank. The plant has a production capacity of 10,000 litres of rectified spirit per day and uses multiple raw materials, although locally grown cassava is the main feedstock. Farmerco started with the agronomy of 400+ acres of a cassava nucleus farm in Western Uganda for raw materials complemented by 4,000 out growers.

The investment undertaken by Farmerco Industries was a call for import substitution during and post Covid-19 pandemic, for the manufacture of industrial ethanol as a base material for sanitizer and disinfectants. Post covid-19 changes in the demand and utilization for sanitizers and related materials, compelled Farmerco to develop the clean energy cooking solution by leveraging the existing production of ethanol. This end-to-end green energy solution will use denatured ethanol for cooking instead of charcoal. This will provide Ugandan households with sustainable, clean, and efficient cooking energy solution. Farmerco shall establish a robust countrywide distribution network that will guarantee efficient distribution of the denatured ethanol and the clean cooking stoves. Our new facility in Kampala shall handle the storage, assembly and the distribution of the denatured ethanol as well as the clean cooking stoves.

The Ugandan government has set ambitious targets to increase the use of modern energy sources, including biofuels.

Our Services

Backstory

Cooking is an integral part of our human existence. Unfortunately, for a country like Uganda, we are heavily reliant on biomass with charcoal being the primary cooking fuel. Most of the charcoal consumers are based in Kampala, Mbale, Gulu and Mbarara sourced mainly from charcoal burners and middlemen/retailers. Charcoal production and use has severe environmental and health consequences.
[SI

10,000 +

Litres Per Day

4000 +

Outgrowers

400 +

Acres Nucleus Farm

19

Acre Factory Campus

The

Objective

Our core objective is to produce 3.65 million litres of denatured ethanol annually, targeting 10% of the urban clean in our first phase. The target market shall be Kampala City and the wider Kampala Metropolitan Area. This area has a population of 4 million people living in 800,000 homesteads and we are targeting 80,000 households over the next 36 months.

We shall also assemble, pack and distribute 80,000 clean cooking stoves within 36 months from the launch date. This initiative is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 20,000 tons annually. This will in turn improve indoor air quality, reducing respiratory diseases and deaths among the population, create jobs and income opportunities for smallholder farmers and local communities, and reduce health exposures to carbon based fuels, as well as reduce pressure on the natural environment resources.

Our

Value Chain Components

The value chain consists of the following key components for a successful end-to-end service.

Denatured Ethanol Production: The factory in Western Uganda shall produce high-quality denatured ethanol using locally sourced feedstock (cassava).
Clean Cook Stove Assembly and Distribution: We shall establish a plant in Kampala to assemble, pack, store, and distribute clean cook stoves.
Marketing and Promotion: Farmerco shalldevelop a comprehensive marketing and promotion network to promote the use of clean cook stoves fuelled by denatured ethanol.
Training and Capacity Building: We shall offer training and capacity building programs for smallholder farmers, local communities, and other stakeholders..

The Team

Our Experts

Kenneth Rutaremwa

Director

Kenneth Kiiza

Chairman

Edwin Kyambadde

Finance Lead

Dr Ephraim Nuwamanya

Plant Production Chemist

Moses Bwengye Bagumira

General Manager

Dan Omolo

Plant Manager

Joachim Baluku

Operations Manager

Mary S. Nyabalega

Consultant – Legal & Regulatory Compliance

Annet Nyakwera

HR Manager

Patricia Were

Finance Manager

We Transform Communities Across the Country

Gender – emphasis on recruitment of women into the Sales & Distribution channels for economic empowerment and as substitution from charcoal production
Health – remove exposure to harmful cooking environments prevalent with charcoal or firewood
Environment – reduction in the pressure on natural forest resources in the production of charcoal & firewood. Farmerco is in the process of applying for carbon credit which will be used towards subsidization of the stove for affordable adoption.
Education – release the girl-child from the traditional tasks of sourcing firewood and charcoal, back into the education stream.

Tales and

Testimonials

Engineering Manager, UNOOC

Alice Higenyi

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Interior Designer

Nathan Mugisha