Integrated Crop Management (ICM) was an unknown in Kenya 15 years ago. That was before Dicky Evans came along: a British entrepreneur who set about developing biological pest control products for Kenya-based UK produce business Homegrown (now Finlays Horticulture).
Evans’ brief was to develop fully-integrated pest management programmes for all Homegrown crops. The research firm he established in 2001 – Dudutech – has since gone on to pioneer ICM across Kenya, and indeed the entire African continent.
Dudutech managing director Tom Mason explains: “As early as 2001, Dicky had the foresight to recognise that English and European retailers would not permit farmers to continue using synthetic pesticides due to emerging evidence of health and environmental risk, and this catalysed the original Dudutech biopesticide range. In 2013 Finlays, backed by UK parent company Swire, made a significant investment to upscale the Dudutech business in Africa.”
Dudutech Africa’s headquarters were initially situated in northern Kenya on Finlays’ Ibis Farm. In 2005, it shifted to Finlays’ Kingfisher Farm, where it has 14 ha of outdoor insectproduction, two dedicated indoor insectaries, and fungus and nematode production facilities.
“We now have operations in Kenya, South Africa, the UK and the Netherlands, as well as a growing distributor base in many other countries,” says Mason, who believes the greatest barrier to the use of ICM in Africa is knowledge. “Dudutech’s dedicated training division certifies over 7,000 candidates per year. Alongside our training division, we have the backing of our technical support team that works alongside farmers as an extension to their own business.”
In spite of its British origins, Dudutech Africa identifies itself squarely as a Kenyan firm with a keen national identity. “It’s exciting that Dudutech’s entire team (230 employees) in Kenya are Kenyans,” says Mason. “Our investors, Finlays and Swire, have a long and prosperous history on the African continent, and Finlays is Kenya’s largest agricultural export group.”
In 2014, with the backing of Finlays and Swire, Dudutech embarked on a three-year expansion plan. “This has led us to initiate ISO 9001:2008 certification and establish operational entities in Africa and Europe,” says Mason. “We have also had the support of some veteran fresh produce players in the form of Martin Hudson, CEO at Finlays Horticulture in the UK, who is our chairman, as well as Ian Mitchell, fresh produce and agriculture director, for the Finlays Horticulture group.”
