ImpactAlpha, April 20 – Africa-focused agriculture investment group Agris is teaming up with a major Israeli avocado producer, Granot, to build a nearly 1,000 acre avocado farm in central Kenya that the partners expect to create 2,000 local jobs. The farm, called Ndabibi, will export avocados to Europe and produce other crops for the local market.
Agri-investor AgDevCo provided $8 million in mezzanine debt, which is “flexibly structured to support new avocado orchards, which take three to four years to reach maturity,” said AgDevCo’s Chris Isaac.
Kenya is already among the top 10 avocado producers. The partners intend to build an agricultural center on site as a local knowledge and training hub to “benefit the whole of the Kenyan avocado industry, providing producers across the country with the technical research and development we need to put Kenya on the map as a major avocado producer,” said Ran Kadosh of Agris, a division of investment firm Maris.
