Description

Kunu (also known as kunun zaki) is a non-alcoholic beverage consumed throughout Nigeria. Kunu is a fermented cereal-based food drink which is a good source of cheap calorie supply.

It is usually made from grains such as millet, sorghum, or sometimes maize. The variety of the drink made from sorghum is a milky light-brown colour, whilst that which is made from millet and maize is whitish in colour.
It is rich in vitamins especially B1 and B2 and essential mineral elements. Kunu drink is very refreshing and filling.

Kunu is made by first allowing the grain seeds to germinate, then soaking the seeds in water for a few days and blending the soaked grain with sweet potatoes and ginger or pepper to form a smooth paste.

This paste is then divided into two parts. One part is placed in a vessel and has boiling water poured on it, then it is stirred to give a thick mixture. The other part of the paste is then added to this mixture and it is stirred some more.

The mixture is then left for a day or two for the grain husk to settle. After this, the husk and other sediment are filtered out of the mixture, and the filtered liquid is bottled for consumption.

Kunu prepared by the traditional method has short shelf-life, and therefore, requires adequate preservation to make it shelf-stable and of high keeping quality.

There are various types of kunu and they are Kunun zaki, Kunun gyada, Kunun akamu, Kunun tsamiya, Kunun baule, Kunun jiko, Amshau and Kunun gayamba. Kunun zaki was the most commonly consumed.

The demand for bottled Kunu is quite high in Nigeria. Kunu like Juices are served at occasions such as naming, wedding, burial, house warming, seminars, workshops, and so on.

The national demand for kunu is above thirty million (30,000,000) litres/annum. Supply is less than fifteen percent (15%) of the demand and met mainly through cottage producers who produce for subsistence living.

This report seeks to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing kunu drink production plant in Nigeria using sorghum, sugar and sodium benzoate as the raw materials.

The proposed production volume is two thousand five (2,500) Litres per day at one hundred percent (100%) capacity utilization and the plant would operate at eighty percent (80%) of the installed capacity for a single shift of eight (8) hours per day for three hundred (300) working days per annum and producing one million, two hundred thousand (1,200,000) bottles of fifty (50) cl.