Why Northern Kenya counties should consider Olive oil cultivation

Wajir, Mandera , Marsabit and Turkana counties  in my opinion do present a better opportunity for olive oil tree farming that actually do perform well in arid conditions  though a study on stress biology needs to be conducted to ascertain whether they can thrive well in those mentioned areas. According to studies carried out by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Agricultural Research Organization reveals that olive trees have numerous environmental benefits ranging from cleaning up the air of pollutants such as CO2 gas in the air, providing shelter for migratory birds in addition to producing the olive oil. Studies do indicate that olive oil plants are capable of growing in arid and semi-arid condition without spending too much funds on maintenance. The good cultivars take up to four years when they start bearing the fruits and have life expectancy of over 400 years.

Economic Benefits of Olive Oil Products.

To understand the economics of Oil Olive agribusiness we need to look at countries like Italy where exports from olive oil contributes 1% to her GDP which stands at $2.149 trillion dollars, which translates to  $21.49 billion dollars , from our Kenyan perspective that’s nearly half of our GDP that stands at $55 billion dollars following the recent rebasing. According to FAO Italian olive production covers approximately 1,700,000 ha, 80 percent of which are located in southern Italy, where Puglia represents the most important region, with about 370 000 ha, followed by the Calabria (about 186 000 ha) and Sicily (about 160 000 ha). The four earlier mentioned Kenyan counties have the ability to hold more than 10,000,000 ha in my opinion and contribute an equal amount to the current GDP in 6-7 years to come if properly managed. A clip on how the olive oil industry cushions the greece economy as it battles economic  recession. 

Stakeholders Collaboration

However, there is need for collaboration between stakeholders i.e. the national government, the county government on priority projects, state departments such as K.A.R.I and I.C.I.P.E on the viability and feasibility of such ventures and the nomadic communities in the respective regions in order to realize such projects. Kenya consumes nearly 400 million tons of edible oil annually. We produce only 20% locally; the remaining 80% is imported, costing the country over $500,000,000 this can only change if more efforts are put into agro diversification i.e.  Palm oil, coconut oil and Olive Oil farming. The below video shows how  farming works in Israel in collaboration with various stakeholders.

Current situation

According to the economic survey carried out by the central bureau of statistics in 2004 under the then planning and development ministry exports of animal and vegetable oils from Kenya experienced a drop in year 2000 when they fell to KShs 1.2 billion from KShs 2.1 billion in 1999. However, the exports picked up again from 2001 onwards increasing to KShs 2.3 billion in 2002 and KShs 2.4 billion in 2003. This increase was mainly due to expansion of markets in Uganda and Tanzania, among other countries, by Bidco Oil Refineries. Animal and vegetable oils contribute over 96% of the total exports while oil seeds, nuts and kernel contribute the remaining 4%. The COMESA region is the principal market of Kenya’s vegetable oil products; these include Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. One of the leading companies in Kenya, Bidco recently opened processing plants in Uganda to further increase and develop their market in the region. Kenya’s key export destinations for oil seeds include Netherlands, the UK, and Germany where export values stood at KShs 10 million, KShs 6 million and KShs 1.4 million respectively. Bidco Ceo Vimal Shah take on market prospects for agribusiness in East  africa.