Promotion of edible oil crops

Principal Secretary for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Hon. Susan Mangeni  and  her counterpart for Investment  promotion  Hon. Abubakar Hassan yesterday afternoon visited  the Green Forest Food Limited, an off taker of peanut, to assess the market opportunity for groundnuts to anchor the promotion of edible oils crop  farming in Kenya.

Edible oils is the second import bill in Kenya after the petroleum yet most edible oil crops are traditional food value chain. The population especially  in western and the coastal Kenya have an existing practice and resilience on farming edible oil crops such as groundnuts, sunflower, soya beans, sesame etc, 

The focus on edible oils value chain is expected to increase production of raw materials in Kenya and significantly reduce the import bill. This will promote value addition and will impact on our manufacturing sector and increasing .

Groundnuts like other edible oils is a rich value chain offering  smallholder farmers a commercial opportunity to transform subsistence  farming and raise the household income levels. 

The visit yesterday established a huge demand for peanut in the industry, which is over relying on imports from neighboring countries. It’s possible to flip this opportunity to our farmers within the edible oils growing regions and generate as well as wealth across the value chain. 

Groundnuts are not only a valuable source of protein and edible oils but also contribute to soil health by adding nitrogen and can be grown in poor soils. They have a shorter growth cycle compared to other crops and possess a large market in Kenya. 

The demand for peanut is also driven by their diverse value chain in producing peanut butter, oil, snacks, and livestock feed. 

Green Forest  Food company is making significant strides in revolutionizing the agricultural landscape of Kenya and is currently  sub-contracting about 2,000 local small-scale farmers to grow groundnuts and looks forward to expand to ove 200k farmers. 

In attendance was  CEO  Kenya Association of Manufactures Anthony Mwangi  alongside other stakeholders.