Sunflower farming in Kenya

President William Ruto has announced that Kenya will stop importing edible oils in the next five years.

Ruto, who was speaking in State House  Nairobi, after signing the County Government Additional Allocation Bill on Monday, said a lot of money is spent on the importation, and this greatly hurts the country’s foreign exchange.

The president revealed that the edible oil imports cost the country over a billion dollars yearly.

The plan to stop Kenya’s  import of edible oils is underway according to Ruto.  Last year, he said, the state provided local farmers with sunflower seeds, a move aimed at increasing local production of sunflower oil and reducing the imports by at least 50 percent in the next three years.

“On edible oil, and that is why we are focusing on the partnership between National government and county governments. Last year, we provided seeds for sunflowers because edible oil is one of the big tickets that is consuming our foreign exchange and we plan to reduce the purchase of edible oil where we spend close to a billion dollars every year,” Ruto said.

“We want to reduce that by 50% in the next three years and five years to eliminate importation of edible oil into Kenya because we believe that Sunflower, granola, Soya and palm oil, once we are rolled out fully, their development in Kenya will give us the requisite amount for us to reduce and eliminate eventual importation into Kenya.”

He further noted that his administration is committed to eliminating the more than Sh500 billion used to import sugar, wheat, maize, rice and edible oil.