Kilifi county will soon have a new cashewnuts processing factory, thanks to new investment opportunities opened by the county government, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi has said.
The Governor spoke when he attended a consultative meeting between Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Kilifi County cashew farmers at Juwaba hall in Sokoni Ward, Kilifi-North Sub County.
“The Cashew nut sector in Kilifi County has the capacity to improve our socio-economic potential and guarantee better profits to the thousands of families that derive their livelihood from the crop. My administration is working around the clock to invest in this sector as we look to revamp it,”he said.
“We are currently in the final stages of setting up a major Cashew processing plant which will not only offer a ready market for cashew farmers’ produce, but also eradicate middlemen known to exploit our farmers,”he added.
Mr Kingi said that they have as county been distributing free cashew nut seedlings countywide and engaging farmers in training and other extension services in the last two years, to provide adequate raw materials which will ensure the processing plant works seamlessly.
“Our quest to revive this crop has been occasioned by the fact that it was sustaining the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in Kilifi before the factory in Kilifi collapsed and sent the entire sector into oblivion. But now we are distributing seedlings to farmers so that they can start planting the crop again,” the governor said.
The Governor said the story of Kenya Cashewnut factory is a sad reminder to the lcoals and urged the MPs to make sure that the reports done on the same are implemented.
“There are so many reports about this factory. There are reports in court, in Parliament and in various government investigating agencies pertaining this factory.
Kindly go and look at those report and act because livelihoods were lost when everything about the crop turned upside down,” the Governor said.
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya said the collapse of the Kilifi Cashewnuts factory brought a lot of pains to the locals and especially farmers who depended on the crop for survival.
