Avocado farmers, who have poor access to markets, can extract cooking oil from ripe fruits for sale to save on rotting using a cheap manual pressing machine from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, KALRO.

The machine extracts pure cooking oil from ripe avocados, which can be packaged and sold upon approval from regulatory authorities like Kenya Bureau of Standards.

The Oil Press Manual Extractor does not require electric or fuel energy other than that of the farmer ‘crashing’ the ripe part of the avocado through the funnel-like chamber.

Damaris Kagendo, a KALRO officer in Kitale, said besides helping the farmers in boosting earnings, the extractor could shield them against rotting losses when there is no ready market for the produce.

A farmer has to manually remove the skin and the seed of the fruit to remain with the green or yellowish pulp.

“Half a litre of the oil fetches about Sh90 (N400). Although the determination of the shelf-life has to be done after laboratory tests, the oil does not require any preservative to prevent it from going bad. And its life is longer than a ripe avocado that rots in a day or two,” Kagendo said.

The machine separates the oil from pulp and the residue remains in the pressing chamber while oil exits through a downward facing outlet for filtering. The filtering chamber is separate. But a special sterilised white clothing can also be used to remove impurities from the oil for packaging.

At least 10kg of ripe avocado pulp can give four to seven litres of the oil, depends on the quality of the fruits used.

Besides being used for cooking and as butter, the oil is also a good skin ointment product.

KALRO sells the machine at Sh40,000 (about N180,000).

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The quantity of Avocado that waste away outstrips what we get to consume. I believe we have local fabricators who can replicate such.

I wonder what our AGRIC engineers are doing in this country... In fact the Professors are the worse.

Hello, which part of the Avocado is used? The fleshy part, the hard kernel or both?
Thanks

Pavore9:

"A farmer has to manually remove the skin and the seed of the fruit to remain with the green or yellowish pulp".

Thanks

I want this machine Pavore.

Oil prices have literally tripled in Nigeria in the last 6 months and I use lots of oil in my production so I started thinking of an alternative and just this week I thought I can make oil from Avocado or African Pear. Then boom, you have this article here!! Excellent, that's a confirmation.

PapaBrowne:
I want this machine Pavore.

Oil prices have literally tripled in Nigeria in the last 6 months and I use lots of oil in my production so I started thinking of an alternative and just this week I thought I can make oil from Avocado or African Pear. Then boom, you have this article here!! Excellent, that's a confirmation.

I believe you would also need a large supply of Avocado. The article says "At least 10kg of ripe avocado pulp can give four to seven litres of the oil, depends on the quality of the fruits used."

That is the only barrier I see. For now

How can one get this machine?

PapaBrowne:
I want this machine Pavore.

Oil prices have literally tripled in Nigeria in the last 6 months and I use lots of oil in my production so I started thinking of an alternative and just this week I thought I can make oil from Avocado or African Pear. Then boom, you have this article here!! Excellent, that's a confirmation.

Is avocado readily available here in Nigeria?
@pavore9 do you please have the video
We can surely replicate this

Walexz02:

Is avocado readily available here in Nigeria?
@pavore9 do you please have the video
We can surely replicate this

You have to research on communities that are high in avocado farming and there is likelihood of high wastage going on there.

As for the video, one needs to track the guy mentioned in the article or maybe search YouTube to see there is an upload there.