Down to Thyolo

Macadamia bushes in Thyolo

Thyolo (pronounced "Cholo") is a tea-growing region around XX kms south-east of Blantyre.  On Friday I travelled with a couple of the project team to visit a macadamia factory so that we could see how a modern, well-equipped export-quality food processing plant is designed and run.

Dressed up for the visit

We had an extremely informative tour of the plant, seeing the end-to-end path of the nuts from delivery by truck through to the shipping of boxed nuts at the other end of the plant.  The guys from the Thyolo Nut Company were very courteous, helpful, and welcoming.  My clients saw the implications of HACCP certification in terms of the processes and facilities that need to be put in place to meet the food security standards required by European, American and South African customers.

Looking at the sorting belts

Having worked in a commercial kitchen as a qualified chef, I'm up to speed with HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and the importance of record-keeping to ensure that all risks are appropriately monitored and recorded to minimise the risks of contamination in the end product.  Of course, we all had to dress in white coats, shoes, and head covers.  The factory wasn't operating as this isn't the right time of the year, but we got a good picture of the process.

Shell-fuelled boiler

It was also interesting to see that the macadamia shells and low-quality kernels are used to fuel the boiler that powers the plant - a truly environmentally-efficient element to the factory's operations.