Nairobi Securities listed agricultural company Sasini Ltd has disposed more than 500 acres of land in Nyeri County to pave the way for private real estate development.
According to the Daily Nation, proceeds from the deal will be used to construct a Sh500 million macadamia factory as the company diversifies from coffee, tea and dairy business to nuts.
The company’s general manager in charge of coffee operations, Mr James Muriithi, told The Daily Nation that this was a strategic position as the firm will focus on macadamia farming to sustain its coffee business. According to Mr Muriithi, global trends indicate that everybody is going for macadamia because it’s a healthy product.
Sasini is also establishing other macadamia factories following conclusion of a deal in which it sold 514 acres within Mweiga Estate to real estate developers in 2015.
Of the sold parcel, 355 acres were under coffee and the rest under an exotic forest. The company still has 1,000 acres under coffee.
Sasini has a long history in coffee, tea and dairy production, with eight coffee estates in the Central Highlands covering 912 hectares and an annual production of about 1,500 tonnes.
This is the same route taken by Kakuzi Limited, who a decade ago reduced its acreage under coffee to venture into avocado, macadamia farming and agro-forestry.
Having established its macadamia estate in 2007, Kakuzi was targeting to expand it to 1,063 hectares by 2016 to become the largest producer in Kenya.
The Central Highlands are key producers of some of the best coffees in the world, but the business has faced a serious onslaught from real estate, which is perceived to be more lucrative.
Source; Daily Nation
