NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – A major campaign to encourage eating of vegetables in Kenya was launched on Saturday.
Unilever Kenya Limited through its Knorr Beef Cubes brand kicked off the drive that aims to distribute fresh Sukuma Wiki to over one million homes countrywide.
"Over the campaign period, we will visit 1,000,000 homes in Nairobi with half a kilo of sukuma together with the Knorr cubes to boost the taste. We will also give nutritional information as we engage with the public on vegetable eating habits in Kenya," said Yaw Nsarkoh, Unilever East and Southern Africa Managing Director.
According to the World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural organization (WHO/FAO), Kenyans currently consume an average of 88.3 kgs per year of vegetables per person.
This falls far below the WHO/FAO recommended levels of 146kgs per person per year. The Government through the ministry of public health has committed to championing this cause.
"Unilever is dedicated to helping people everywhere achieve the nutritional balance needed for a vital and healthy life," says Yaw Nsarkoh.
"This is the build up to a process where through our brand Knorr, we will work with like minded partners to educate our consumers and therefore improve the nutritional intake through vegetable consumption."
Fresh Sukuma Wiki
To ensure there\’s fresh Sukuma Wiki throughout the door to door exercise, Unilever has partnered with fresh produce exporter Sunripe Kenya Limited to provide over 500,000 kilos of Sukuma Wiki grown with organic manure.
Sunripe has been growing Sukuma Wiki on its farms as part of its crop rotation cycle.
The excess of other vegetables is decomposed to generate organic manure that\’s used to grow the sukumawiki and other fresh produce exported.
The partnership with Unilever provides an avenue for Sunripe to provide the healthy greens for consumption in the country, especially at this time of year when Sukuma Wiki vegetables are in short supply.
The drive is part of Knorr\’s Beef up your Sukuma nationwide education campaign to drive increased consumption of vegetables among Kenyans in order to curb the high cases of malnutrition in the country.
Unilever\’s Knorr Brand has chosen Sukuma Wiki as an entry point to the nutritional campaign as it is a widely eaten vegetable in Kenya, and contains the necessary nutrients such as Vitamin A, to help curb the micro-deficiencies in the country.
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