Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. Nuts and Oil Produce
The use of palm oil in food and beauty products has attracted the concern of environmental groups; the high oil yield of the trees has encouraged wider cultivation, leading to the clearing of forests in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia to make space for oil-palm monoculture. This has resulted in significant acreage losses of the natural habitat of the three surviving species of orangutan. One species in particular, the Sumatran orangutan, has been listed as critically endangere
Application for a Nuts and Oil Produce Manufacturer license is done in person by visiting the Nuts /Oil Crops Directorate’s Head Offices or their field offices in the counties. Here you will be issued with an Application for Grant/Renewal of a Manufacturing License form to fill and submit.
Procedure – Nuts and Oil Produce
- “Manufacture” means the processing of all nuts and oil crops produce and products and includes cracking, grading, packaging, labeling and distribution of nuts and oils crops products for sale; and does not include dehusking and drying.
- “manufacturer” means a processing firm that transforms nuts and oil crops produce/products to various end use products.
Apply In-Person for Nuts and Oil Produce permit
- Application for a Nuts and Oil Produce Manufacturer license is done in person by visiting the Nuts /Oil Crops Directorate’s Head Offices or their field offices in the counties.
- Here you will be issued with an Application for Grant/Renewal of a Manufacturing License form to fill and submit.
- A sample of the Application For Grant/Renewal Of A Manufacturing License can be found on page 38 and 39 of this document.
- Fill in the required information properly and attach the required documents to the application before. These include:
- Duly filled application form
- Copy of ID/Passport of applicant
- Copy of Certificate of Incorporation or Registration Certificate
- Copy of dully signed Articles and Memorandum of Association
- Copies of ID or Passports of Company Directors
- Copy of valid County Government’s Single Business Permit
- Copy of KRA’s PIN Certificate for the company
- Copy of valid KRA’s Tax Compliance Certificate
- Copy of valid NEMA’s Environmental Impact Assessment or Environmental Audit Certificate where applicable
- Copy of Public Health’s Food Drugs and Chemical Substances License where applicable
- Any other requirements that may be prescribed by the Authority from time to time
- Submit the completed application form and pay the required application fee of Ksh. 1000 and submit the receipt as proof of payment.
- This is followed by an inspection of applicants premises/factory/warehouse by the Nuts and Oil Crops directorate’s Officers
- Recommendations based in findings of the investigation will be made to the Nuts and Oil Crops directorate’s Board Headquarters for final approvals Board approval.
- At this point the applicant is notified if he/she has been successfully licensed or which rectifications have to be made for them to be licensed as a manufacturer.
- Upon a successful approval the nuts and oil produce manufacturing license applicant is notified and he/she will be required to pay the license fee of Ksh. 5,000 for Cottage Processors (Gross turnover of KES 5,000,000 and below per year) or Ksh. 25,000 for (Established/Big Processors (Gross turnover of more than KES 5,000,000 per year) to the authority and submit the receipt as proof of payment.
- Once the licensing process is done the Nuts and Oil Producer Manufacturing license is issued to the applicant
Required Documents – Nuts and Oil Produce
- Duly filled application form
- Copy of ID/Passport of applicant
- Copy of Certificate of Incorporation or Registration Certificate
- Copy of dully signed Articles and Memorandum of Association
- Copies of ID or Passports of Company Directors
- Copy of valid County Government’s Single Business Permit
- Copy of KRA’s PIN Certificate for the company
- Copy of valid KRA’s Tax Compliance Certificate
- Copy of valid NEMA’s Environmental Impact Assessment or Environmental Audit Certificate where applicable
- Copy of Public Health’s Food Drugs and Chemical Substances License where applicable
- Single Business Permit
- Any other requirements that may be prescribed by the Authority from time to time
Office Locations & Contacts
Nuts and oil crops Directorate
6th Floor, NSSF Building,
Nkrumah Road, Mombasa
Phone: +041 2319617
Website: Nuts and oil crops Directorate
Agriculture and Food Authority
Tea House; Naivasha Road, off Ngong Road
P.O Box 37962 – 00100, Nairobi
Cell Phone: +254-722200556/734600944
Wireless: +254 – 020 – 2536869/2536886
E-Mail: info@afa.go.ke
Website: AFA
Eligibility Nuts and Oil Produce
- Any person, cooperative society, group or company who intend to erect /operate a processing firm that transforms nuts and oil crops produce/products to various end use products
Fees
- Application fee is Ksh 1,000
- Cottage Processors (Gross turnover of KES 5,000,000 and below per year) and new applicants license fee of Ksh. 5,000
- Established/Big Processors (Gross turnover of more than KES 5,000,000 per year) license fee of Ksh. 25,000
Validity
- The license is valid for a period of one year.
- The license expires on the 30th June of every year.
Documents to Use
- A sample of the Application For Grant/Renewal Of A Manufacturing License can be found on page 38 and 39 of this document.
Processing Time
- The processing time is 30 days.
Required Information
- Name of Applicant
- Registered Office Details (head Office)
- KRA Number
- Postal and physical address
- Telephone numbers
- Email address\
- Website
- Place where premise is located
- Land Reference Number
- Date of establishment/ incorporation
- registration certificate number
- Name of company
- Name of directors and contact information , citizenship and shares
- Types of Produce/ Products for the market
- Sources of supply of Produce
Need for the Document
- A Nut and Oil produce manufacturer registration certificate authorizes the holder to conduct the business as a manufacturer in nut an oil produce products Kenya.
- No person can act as a nut and oil produce manufacturer unless he is the holder of a current registration certificate issued in respect thereof by the Board after consultation with the Director.
Information which might help
- Every manufacturer of nuts and oil crops produce shall file quarterly returns to the relevant County Government and to the Authority not later than the tenth day of the first month after the end of the quarter.
- Every dealer or manufacturer shall pay a licensing or registration fee as prescribed
- The Licensing Authority may revoke, suspend or vary a certificate of registration or license or a permit issued to a manufacturer if they–
- Fail to comply with these regulations or the conditions set out in the certificate of registration or license or permit.
- Commit an offence under the act or any other written law in respect of the activity for which they have been registered or licensed or permitted.
- Every grower, manufacturer and dealer shall develop, implement and monitor a detailed traceability system to track and trace the history and location at all stages of production, processing and distribution of the nuts and oil crops produce and products.
- Every grower, manufacturer or dealer shall maintain traceability records relating to the produce and products for at least two years.
- Every grower, manufacturer or dealer shall maintain traceability records relating to the seed and seedlings of nuts and oil crops for at least five years.
External Links
Others
- Nuts and Oil Crops Directorate is an arm of Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) mandated to develop, promote and regulate the nuts and oil crops industry in Kenya. Before the enactment of AFA Act 2013 and Crops Act 2013, the role of developing, promoting and regulating the nuts and oil crops subsector was largely amorphous. In here Kenya Coconut Development Authority was tasked with the responsibility of developing, promoting and regulating the coconut industry while Horticultural Crops Development Authority, among other functions, focused on other horticultural crops including macadamia. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries handled the rest of the nuts and oil crops.
- Though this set up to some extent exploited the potential in the nuts and oil crops subsector, the desired results were not adequately achieved. It is on this basis that the government initiated reforms in the Agricultural sector that gave rise to AFA and its underlying Directorates. AFA and by extension its Directorates was incepted to spearhead the development of scheduled crops as delineated in the First Schedule of Crops Act 2013. This was envisaged would negate for instance the amorphous way the nuts and oil crops subsector was being developed and regulated. The Nuts and Oil Crops Directorate assumed the mandate of the hitherto Kenya Coconut Development Authority. Other than coconut, this Directorate was added additional nuts and oil crops such as macadamia, cashew nuts and ground nuts among others.
Humans used oil palms as far back as 9,000 years. In the late 1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 7,000 BCE It is believed that traders brought oil palm to Egypt
Palm oil from E. guineensis has long been recognized in West and Central African countries, and is widely used as a cooking oil. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use as a cooking oil in Europe.
Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery during Britain’s Industrial Revolution.
Palm oil formed the basis of soap products, such as Lever Brothers‘ (now Unilever) “Sunlight” soap, and the American Palmolive brand.
By around 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries, although this was overtaken by cocoa in the 1880s with the introduction of colonial European cocoa plantations