KENYA LAUNCHES EDIBLE OIL PRODUCTION PROJECT TO REDUCE IMPORTS

Fri 29 September 2023:

In an effort to reduce imports, Kenya launched a five-year project on Friday to encourage domestic production of edible oil.

The Edible Oil agricultural Promotion Project, according to Douglas Kangi, director of agricultural resources, agribusiness, and market development in the Ministry of Agriculture, will encourage the production of edible oil crops, particularly sunflower, in order to conserve foreign exchange reserves.

“We consume around 900 metric tonnes of edible oil, and only 6 percent is produced locally. We import the rest, spending around 120 billion shillings (about 809.2 million U.S. dollars) annually. This is a trend we want to reverse,” he said.

He observed that the project would be implemented in 24 counties across Kenya, some of which are currently growing oil crops.

According to Kangi, the overall goal of the initiative is to raise local production of edible oils from the current 6 percent to at least 50 percent.

This, he said, will involve increasing the area under edible oil crops like sunflower, palm, coconut, soya bean, and canola from 4,000 acres (1,618 hectares) to 200,000 acres, training of farmers and the provision of more than 500 metric tonnes of seeds for planting.

The Kenyan government is particularly interested in sunflower among all the edible oil crops, according to Kangi, and the long-term goal is to produce the crop on 1 million acres.

Dominic Menjo, the food security advisor to Kenyan President William Ruto, claimed that the project would help the nation cut its import cost, which was 9.4 billion shillings in 2022.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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