The Baringo government has partnered with World Best Friends, a Korean organisation, to establish a Sh100 million coffee mill.
On Friday, Governor Stanley Kiptis and Korean investor Cha Bo Yong at Katimok signed an Mou in Ossen-Kabartonjo, Baringo North.
“Planning of the location has been a tedious exercise since 2013, but we are happy all has finally come to pass today,” Kiptis said.
Bo Yong said construction works will cost Sh30 million and the mill will be purchased at Sh27 million. The project will be commissioned by March next year.
“The factory will also act an employment opportunity to the local experts, especially the youth,” Yong said, promising to buy raw materials at an attractive price.
In November last year, farmers in Baringo North and Central threatened to uproot their coffee over differences on the proposed location of the factory.
In 2015, former Governor Benjamin Cheboi proposed two acres in Katimok forest. But in 2017, Kiptis suggested it be relocated to the Agricultural Farmers College in Eldama-Ravine.
Also contested was the small size of the land, the low temperatures for drying coffee cherries and lack of a title deed.
“We are also happy now that the Kenya Forest Service has fully surrendered the land for the construction of the factory,” Kiptis said of his pledges to boost the sector.
"We will also push and support the farmers to grow more seedlings to ensure more than enough production. This is an initiative to have at least an active factory in every subcounty across the county.”
He said a milk cooler is already nearing completion in Eldama-Ravine and cited progress in other sectors such as diatomite and geothermal exploration in Tiaty, cotton ginnery in Salawa, a slaughterhouse in Maoi-Baringo South and a tannery in Mogotio
Kiptis said the mill will boost the coffee sector and enable farmers to earn increased returns given the availability of a market for their produce.
“I have made several trips to Korea, courtesy of Bo Yong, and it has been established that the coffee from Baringo is ranked the best and the sweetest in the world,” he said.
The project will also have a coffee processing and packaging plant, complete with a business information centre that will support the marketing of products in the global market.
“We are ready to produce enough coffee required for the sustainable operation of this mill to meet the needs of Korea and other markets because we have the potential,” Kiptis said.
