The Kifufu estate lies on the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. Originally developed by a German settler in Tanganyika, the estate was developed as a coffee plantation, and the condition of the basic estate infrastructure bears witness to the quality of German engineering. The estate was recently leased by one of AAC's investees (the well-named Africado) and is being replanted to avocado trees. Here's a picture of the General Manager's castle with the stunning backdrop of Kilimanjaro.
A few years ago, when it was under CDC's ownership and management, I periodically used to visit the Rwenzori Highlands Tea company in Western Uganda. From the main estate, there was an equally fabulous view of the snow-capped Rwenzori mountains. Everyone who visited the estate marvelled at the view, much to the irritation of one estate manager's wife who would acknowledge its beauty but also observe, a little sadly, that "You can't live on a view". True enough, but it certainly helps assuage the loneliness of life on a plantation.
Avocado trees grow very well in parts of East Africa. Africado is planting the much-in-demand Hass variety at Kifufu and plans to distribute seedling trees from its nursery to smallholder farmers in the vicinity. By aggregating smallholder-grown avocados with its own estate production and shipping to high value European markets, the business has solid prospects - and will provide smallholders with another option (apart from coffee production) for a high value tree crop.
