HornAfrik Gums Limited utilizes untapped resources to provide alternate livelihood opportunities to local pastoralists. The company collects gums and resin in Wajir, Moyale and Marsabit in Northern Kenya. In 2016, the company noted gums and resin resource availability in Northern Kenya and started running the business informally.
The CEO of HornAfrik Gums Limited, Roble Garad, indicates that some of the challenges in running the business includes droughts that negatively impact the quality of the yield; scarcity of gum trees that upend the demand and supply equilibrium and competition with foreign companies due to an absence of foreign policy regulation in the gum and resin market.
With the support of Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV), HornAfrik Gums Limited secured capital to expand their infrastructure and increase their operational capacity such as procurement of vehicles and land, construction of additional offices as well as increasing the company’s human resource capacity.
Roble Garad states that in the future, with the help of Kenya Climate Ventures, HornAfrik Gums Limited plans to continue growing their relationships with their customers; create more factories and collection centres; increase rates of productivity within the company and expand their reach overseas. Instead of just supplying the raw resources as they currently do, the company aims to create the final gum product for export to secure premium prices.
HornAfrik Gums Limited has created a positive network that has gained communities’ trust in regions where the company works. Through their gum and resin collection process, HornAfrik Gums Limited continues to create alternative employment opportunities for farmers in Northern Kenya and improve livelihoods.
HornAfrik Gums Limited plans to further expand the business by planting additional 5,000 gum trees within 200 km ² of land. This will significantly increase the scale of their impact in the communities where they work, from both livelihood improvement and environment sustenance perspectives.
By Christiane Amare Lemma
