Somaliland Vegetable Oil Company, based in Hargeisa, has been refining and packing Sunflower Oil for the last 3 years. It was established with approximately $1,807,000 investment by investors of both genders from the Somaliland Diaspora, and local investors. SOVOLCO was established to be the first and the only manufacturer of high-quality sunflower oil in Somaliland. Whilst refining and processing cooking oil, the business has faced challenges, and now requires further investment in order to achieve its business objectives.

With increased production, reliability is a key factor. With the increased cost of sunflower raw material due to Covid 19 a lot of production has been lost. 1 month of packaging materials and 870 tons of sunflower raw materials (seed) will be required every month in order to keep up with production capacity.

SOVOLCO is also planning to contract local out growers cultivating sunflower seeds at about 1,050 hectors per season to fulfil the required tons of crude oil per season which SOVOLCO refinery plant requires since the cost of crude oil increased in the international markets.  

Finally in order to co-ordinate and manage this increased capacity, an accounting package, namely QuickBooks has been purchased and the necessary training will be provided to all related staff to properly maintain the records.