Agriculture & Agro-processing

A national priority

As part of the Presidential “Big Four Action Plan”, the Government of Kenya (GoK) is committed to achieve food security by 2022. To this end, the objective of the GoK is to place additional 700,000 Acres through public-private partnerships (including idle arable land) under maize, potato, rice, cotton, aquaculture and feeds production.

To attract investors in the agricultural and agro-processing sector, the government has put in place a set of non-fiscal and fiscal incentives.

A world-class agricultural sector

Kenya has a strong comparative advantage in the agricultural sector. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy accounting for 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and providing livelihood to approximately 75 percent of the population.

Value added per worker (USD) in the agricultural sector : Kenya versus other Eastern African countries
Source : World Bank

The productivity of the agricultural sector in Kenya is the second highest productivity in continental East Africa. Kenya is the third largest tea exporter globally and the largest exporter of horticulture with East Africa. 70% of Kenyans exports have an agricultural focus and the sector employs 85% of the rural workforce.

Agricultural products represent 65% of Kenya’s total exports. Kenya’s agricultural exports include traditional agricultural exports (tea and coffee) and non-traditional agricultural exports.

Huge local and foreign markets

With a population of nearly 50 million, the Kenyan market is sizeable. On top of that, preferential trade agreements with the richest regions of the world (U.S.A, European Union) and neighbouring countries – members of the East African Community (EAC) and members of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) – grant Kenyan goods preferential access to more than 1.4 billion customers (Open Markets).

Target sector

There are generous opportunities for expansion of the agricultural sector, especially in the following sub-sectors: