FINANCED SINCE 2015
cacai NUTs FArmers and High quality natural cosmetic products
COLOMBIA
Kahai Group has been founded by the Jaramillo twins around the production of the cacay nut. It is an Amazonian tree that grows wild along the eastern base of the Andes Mountains in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Its fruit, aside producing a tasteful nut, also produce abundant oil which is rich in vitamin A (retinol), vitamin E, vitamin F, omega 3 and 6, which turns it a very attractive product to the cosmetic and healthy food sectors.
It is composed of two companies. On the one hand, Agrocacay is in charge of the plantation with currently 650 Ha planted with 160,000 cacay trees near Puerto Gaitán in the Meta Department. This is the first cacay plantation worldwide, which also has its own nursery that has allowed the company to carry out a genetic selection process by grafting the species that perform best in the crop. This last has diminished the time of the first harvest from 8 years (wild trees) to 5 years (first plantations by Agrocacay) and then to 3 years (following plantations by Agrocacay).
On the other hand, Kahai is in charge of processing the nut and producing the derived products that have been sold in the cosmetic sector (2.6 ton of cosmetic oil during 2021). Its processing plant, located in Villavicencio, consists of very simple machinery that favours the business model in terms of capex.
Impact Thesis :
The cacay tree is an endemic tree of the tropical grass plains of Colombia and Venezuela, thus it is totally adapted to the weather and environment conditions. Unfortunately, it is a tree that was highly used for firewood and charcoal due to its high combustion capacity, which generated an important decrease of its population. Planting again the cacay tree would represent a recovery of the specie. Agrocacay is planning to plant 100,000 additional cacay trees between 2022 and 2023, totaling 260,000 cacay trees.
Kahai group is currently working with institutions such as The Amazon Conservation Team, WWF and GIZ. Among the achievements obtained in terms of social impact, it is worth noting that around 420 indigenous families in the region have received 12,600 cacay trees in order to provide them a source of economic resources. Likewise, they have been given technical assistance to guarantee that the tree reaches maturity and can become suppliers of the Kahai group.
