| Founded | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | , Burundi |
  Savonor Headquarters Savonor Headquarters (Burundi) | |
| Website | www |
Savonor is a company based in Bujumbura, Burundi, that manufactures hygiene, food and cosmetic products in Burundi.
| Founded | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | , Burundi |
| Savonor Headquarters Savonor Headquarters (Burundi) | |
| Website | www |
Savonor is a company based in Bujumbura, Burundi, that manufactures hygiene, food and cosmetic products in Burundi.
The Kuntze family started to manufacture soap in Germany in 1814. Dieter Kuntze travelled to Egypt, Uganda and Burundi in the 1960s. In 1970 he founded "Savon d'or" in Burundi. After he retired in 1996, his son Matthias Kuntz took over as chairman. [1]
Starting in 2006, the company bought oil palm plantations, refined the product to make vegetable oil, and further processed it to make soaps, detergents, sanitizers and other products, as well as edible oils. It continues to source input from smallholder farmers. [2]
During the COVID-19 crisis, in 2020 UNICEF made an agreement with Savonor under which the company reduced its normal profit margin, and with funding from USAID, CERF, the World Bank and UNICEF manufactured "Blue Soap", the same product as its regular basic soap apart from the color, and sold it at half price. This affordable soap would also help reduce the incidence of other infectious diseases. [3]
As of 2021 the company had two main divisions: hygiene products and edible oils. It had about 2,000 employees. Most of its business was in Burundi, but it also traded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. At first the company bought palm oil from other companies and processed it to make soap. [2] Rafina uses cotton seeds from COGERCO to produce cottonseed oil and oilcake. [4] Byproducts are sold to Savonor. [5]
As of 2024 Savonor had over 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of oil palms. It had three oil extraction units, a palm oil refinery and several soap manufacturing factories, Savonor used a fleet of trucks to deliver its products to 40 distributions points throughout Burundi. [6]
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from oil crops in 2014. Palm oils are easier to stabilize and maintain quality of flavor and consistency in ultra-processed foods, so they are frequently favored by food manufacturers. Globally, humans consumed an average of 7.7 kg (17 lb) of palm oil per person in 2015. Demand has also increased for other uses, such as cosmetics and biofuels, encouraging the growth of palm oil plantations in tropical countries.
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used as thickeners, components of some lubricants, emulsifiers, and catalysts.
Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are mixtures of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fats from seeds. Olive oil, palm oil, and rice bran oil are examples of fats from other parts of plants. In common usage, vegetable oil may refer exclusively to vegetable fats which are liquid at room temperature. Vegetable oils are usually edible.
Margarine is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was originally named oleomargarine from Latin for oleum and Greek margarite. The name was later shortened to margarine.
Cottonseed oil is cooking oil from the seeds of cotton plants of various species, mainly Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium herbaceum, that are grown for cotton fiber, animal feed, and oil.
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