Smokies and Sausages rank highly among some of the most loved foods in Kenya, largely due to their sumptuous nature and availability.
The man credited as having introduced the beloved delicacies to Kenyans is none other than the Farmers Choice CEO James Taylor.
With over 50,000 vendors countrywide, all selling Smokies and Sausages, Taylor is impressed with the much the company has achieved not forgetting other meat products on supermarket shelves.
In a recent interview with Nation, he recalled his journey from Lenana School to creating the Farmer's Choice empire - and making it what is today.
Armed with only Ksh 13,000 at the time, he flew to London where he took up a job as a sales agent for a company that dealt with building products. He would later help the firm expand into Kenya.
He would later be poached by a local firm that dealt in the importation of consumer products, before again being poached by Farmer's Choice which at the time was called East Africa Meat Products.
At the time, many companies were struggling with how to utilise excess meat as only 20 per cent of the animals slaughtered was used to produce prime cuts.
Jim was sent to the UK where he learned about meat processing from companies that manufactured sausages.
When he returned to Kenya, Farmer's Choice started the production of sausages in 1979.
The first experiment was almost disastrous as the product exploded, spraying meat inside the kitchen of one of the hotels Jim was pitching the sausages to.
"Initially, we used hog casings derived from a pig's stomach which was used elsewhere in the world. In the early 80s we switched to collagen casings. Collagen casings are much more hygienic. They are derived from the beef hide and are much more economical," he explained.
Today the company produces more than 40 different types of sausages and smokies.
When the smokie leaves here, it's Ksh 13 per piece. When it gets to the vendor it is Ksh 30. Think of the money people are making. We have seen bankers resigning to take up this.
He hopes that the economic recovery will return then to a time they were selling a tonne of smokies a night on weekends.
