The government will take steps to boost cashew nut farming in coastal counties, Investment Promotion PS Abubakuyar Hassan has said.
The PS said processing firms in the country are not getting sufficient cashew nut forcing them to import from neighbouring countries.
Hassan said the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, will work closely with counties and local farmers to boost production of the crop at the coast and other parts of the country.
Coastal Kenya has a higher concentration of cashew nut trees than anywhere else in the country, and almost 70,000 smallholder farmers along the coastline produce cashew nuts.
Speaking during a visit of cashew processing plant at the Export Processing Zone in Vipingo, Kilifi county, the PS said the government will move to encourage locals to take up cashew nut farming.
“There is a problem of raw materials for this investor to process. He has a capacity of 7,000 tonnes per annum but can only get 3,000 tonnes in Kenya which has prompted him to import cashew nut from neighbouring Tanzania,” Hassan explained.
“This investor will be able to export to the European Union quota free, duty free and we have given him the environment under export processing programme that will reduce his cost of production.”
The PS added that the government will work closely with county governments to ensure that farmers are first made aware of the new market and then encouraged to produce more cashew nut.
“We also want to set up a cashew nut factory in Lamu for the same value addition. But for us to sustain these two factories, we need to produce more cashew nuts,” he stated.
Francis Itegi, the Export Processing Authority head of Coast and North Eastern regions, said the government is keen to have Export Processing Zones in all coastal counties.
He noted that majority of EPZs are in Kilifi, Kwale and Mombasa counties.
“We are targeting to have EPZs in Lamu, Tana River and Taita Taveta as well,” Itegi added.
