The Makueni County Government has commissioned the Makueni Integrated Grain Value Addition Plant at Makindu.
According to reports by Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation, the modern grain processing facility which was commissioned on 24th August, 2022, will clean, sort, polish, grade and package beans, pigeon peas, cowpeas and green grams for both domestic and export markets. The facility, will in future be able to split, de-hull, mill and blend various flour products from high value crops
The factory has storage area of about 200 metric tonnes of raw materials and 170 metric tonnes finished product storage area.
It also has a production capacity of 2 metric tonnes per hour. The packaging of pulses at the plant will be in 50 kgs- 100 kg bags, and soon will start packaging for 1kg and 2kgs for supermarkets and wholesale outlets.
The plant will buy grains directly from farmers through organized cooperatives – eliminating brokers, process them and sell the products to local and international markets. The plant is set to cushion farmers against post-harvest losses by providing enough storage and quality value addition targeting to make agriculture a profitable venture.
The County Government is engaging the private sector, Kitui, Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties which produce a lot of pulses to utilize the plant though at a fee.
