Kilifi County Government has officially taken over the running of a Multimillion Mango processing factory in Malindi.
This is after donors seized funding the cooperative that owned the project.
The factory which belongs to the Malindi farmers’ cooperative society has been in existence since 1957 and had donors funding it for the last 13 years but has failed to bear fruits despite investments worth millions that were channelled.
Micro Enterprise Support Program Trust (MESPT) has been in partnership with Malindi Mango farmers cooperative society and Malindi Natural juice processors and initiated the project under Finance agreement amounting to Ksh 164 million Between 2011 and 2020.
MESPT Board chairman Noah Meely said they successfully supported in setting up the factory and have been injecting working capital for its operations.
Speaking during the handover process, Meely said that the handing over also brings to an end of the Green Growth and employment program 2017-2020 which has been supporting mango and coconut value chains in Kilifi County.
The partnership with Malindi farmers cooperative society began in 2007 as a capacity building program on good agriculture practices and facilitated contractual market linkages for the farmers.
Kilifi County Governor Amason Kingi who was the chief guest during the handing over ceremony assured the cooperative of the county support but asked them to send a detailed proposal to his government.
He said the county will support the cooperative finance through the Mbegu fund and shall help them get the ISO Certificate quickly so as to be able to compete with other manufacturers in the market.
Kingi said the cooperative has undergone many challenges in the process and may not have got any profits.
