Palm kernel shells

We are a licensed export company in Port Harcourt, Nigeria (RC 6915228). In the business of sourcing agricultural products from hinterland farming communities within the Niger Delta region. We subsequently process, package and export such products to the international market where they are needed as raw materials for the manufacturing of finished goods.

Although we were incorporated and licensed in 2023, we have been working informally as middle men and also as participants in equity crowdfunding by Agro-Export Cooperatives within the agricultural value chain in the Niger Delta region of the country.

Over the years, we observed that certain agricultural products and their by-products harvested in large quantities by rural farmers, are oftentimes not completely sold off or stored. This has led to a significant amount of waste and low income from local sales.

We believe that buying off the surplus as well as the by-products from the milling process, would not only significantly increase the income accrued to the local farmers at the end of each farming season, but would also reduce the environmental consequences of the accumulation of such leftovers. When we buy these agro products from the farmers, we directly handle the processing and packaging for export in accordance with global specifications and subsequently sell to international buyers.

Although we have our sights on several agricultural products which thrive in the Niger Delta region, we have been working with Palm Kernel Shells as our pilot product.

The Palm Kernel Shell is the hard covering for the Palm kernel nut. The nut and the shell is embedded in the Palm fruit which grows in bunches on Palm trees in tropical regions.

Just as the palm fruit is harvested for its flesh for the making of palm oil, the palm kernel nut within the palm fruit is also harvested for its own oil which is quite different from the one from the palm fruit. To be able to gain access to the palm kernel for use, its shell has to be cracked open. Thereafter, the shell is tossed aside as a waste product from the milling process.This waste product is found in large heaps in oil palm communities in the Niger Delta where the oil palm business has been thriving since pre-colonial times.

However, Palm Kernel Shells are of use in industrialized climes for diverse purposes such as biofuels,abrasives, bio absorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions etc., making it a commercial product which can increase revenue for an oil palm farmer in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Our focus is to source and sell agricultural products that create sustainable partnerships between rural agricultural communities in our region and international buyers, for the profiting of all stakeholders within the agricultural value chain.

Below is a clip of one of our palm kernel shell sites outside an oil mill. It is from this stage that the palm kernel shells are procured for washing, sorting, drying and packaging for the export market.