The Nakuru County government will start exporting milk to Nigeria in exchange for cocoa.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing the partnership has already been signed in a bid to boost trade between the West African country and Nakuru County.
Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua says this was meant to help the county get value for its milk.
“We already have excess milk in the county and Nigeria has a lot of cocoa. We want to start factories for manufacturing chocolate in Naivasha,” he added.
Speaking in Naivasha after meeting a delegation of Nigerian Agribusiness leaders, Mbugua added that the said partnership will benefit both countries especially in creating value for their products.
Kinuthia said that this was to foster relationship between the two parties and that there was need for socio economic development in the area. He cited that the lack of market for the Kenyan produce could be solved by exporting the goods, and encouraged dairy farmers to invest more in the quality of goods they produce.
“With the establishment of industrial parks in the county, we appeal to food processing plants in the county to consider investing there to boost traders,” he added.
Head of the Nigerian delegation, Emmanuel Ijewere, said that Nigeria was yet to learn about agricultural production.
“We intend to increase the export business to fifty per cent in the next three months. Our target is mostly farmers who want to export milk and vegetables to the West,” he added.