Real estate company, Diamond Merchants, has launched an agribusiness hub in a bid to help tackle the increasing shortage of horticultural products.
The newly launched Bethany City Phase 4 in Kajiado is one of the largest agribusiness hubs in the region.
It sits on 150 acres piece of land in Kajiado County. The project will see investors purchase an eighth of an acre of land on which greenhouses will be constructed for them, provide full farm management, agronomical support and a ready market for the yield.
“We realised that the ever-rising prices of horticultural products is caused by a shortage of large-scale farmers resulting to a mismatch between demand and supply,” said Edwin Khiranga, Sales and Marketing Director at Diamond.
The project is being managed by Nguzo International Limited, a company that is specialising in greenhouse farming. A plot at the project, which is located about 7km from Kajiado town, goes for Sh500,000 and is specifically for agribusiness investors.
It will see investors pocket Sh200,000 every season or Sh400,000 anually as a profit after deduction of production costs. Set-up costs for a single greenhouse (15 by 8 metres) are estimated at Sh320,000. The land has already been tilled, borehole water provided with complete plumbing works to every single plot.
It is estimated that a single eight by 15m greenhouse can yield an average of 5,000kgs of tomatoes or capsicum. Given a fixed buy-back price of Sh50 per kg, the expected returns per season is Sh200,000 net after deduction of recurrent expenditures.
During the launch, the company also awarded cheques worth Sh10 million to Phase One investors who have embraced the idea.