Joy for Nyandarua farmers as investors plan to set up wood processing plant

Growers of eucalyptus trees will be the biggest beneficiaries when South African investors set up a multi-million shilling wood processing plant in Nyandarua County.

The investors said the county is ideal for the factory because of the availability of the trees.

One of the investors, Ms Bekezela Ncube, who spoke Wednesday after a meeting with Governor Daniel Waithaka said: "We have decided to set up shop in this county because of the big eucalyptus forests."

"We will soon have the plant once we are done with the logistics. We have been attracted more by the over million eucalyptus trees that area already mature," Ncube added.

Ncube, an adviser to Global Environment Fund (GEF) based in South Africa, said they would work with local co-operative societies so that the plant is partly owned by the farmers.

The investors who said they will be working on the project with GEF and the Kenya Forest Growers Association, are also encouraging locals to engage in large-scale commercial tree farming so that the new factory can have enough raw materials.

Waithaka welcomed the venture and promised mobilise farmers to grow more trees. "We are seeing a major potential for economic growth in our county because our people have enough land and have the capacity to grow more eucalyptus trees," he said.

The governor asked the investors to also consider producing block boards, which the country has for years, been importing from China, saying local farmers would grow the needed trees.

"Nyandarua is ideal for growing of bamboo needed for the manufacture of block boards, Waithaka said.

He noted that trees the country produces are taken to Nairobi and other markets and only benefit middlemen in the process.

"That is why we welcome this investment because it will save our people from enslavement by middlemen and wood merchants," the governor said Wednesday.