Milly fruits processing plant: Building a more resilient and inclusive economic futures for the Kilifi County

The Milly Fruits Processing plant launch on 30th June 2026 was a defining moment for Kilifi County and its people future.

Agriculture carries Kenya’s economy and the people’s livelihoods, but it is increasingly losing its capacity to do so. The sector contributes 23.2% of GDP directly, employs around 40% of the population, and sustains roughly 70% of smallholder farming households.

The share of Kenyans earning their main livelihood from farming has fallen from 25.4% in 2019 to 17.9% in 2024. Poverty remains high at 40%, and 46% of households went without enough food at some point in 2024. Yet 30% and 40% of the food that is produced is lost or wasted before consumption. Fresh produce is a lot more vulnerable to loss with this getting up to almost 60% - more than half the crop.

These losses have significant economic, environmental and social impacts. They erode farmers’ incomes, worsen food insecurity, and increase carbon emissions. All three are central to FSD Kenya’s goal: To unlock green and resilient futures for women, youth, MSMEs and their communities through fostering financial health and financing inclusive economic transformation.

As a market facilitator, FSD Kenya has made significant contributions to Kenya’s financial inclusion in the past two decades. This now stands at 85% yet its impact on livelihoods, food security and resilience has not been as stellar. Access to finance was never the destination - resilience and growth are.

You do not build resilience for a farmer by handing her a loan on a phone. You build it by meeting their needs - making sure that when the farmer grows something, there is a ready market waiting to buy it — close to home, season after season. What often knocks farmers down are the unexpected shocks they face: droughts, floods, pests, or a sudden illness in the family. These economic and health shocks can disrupt incomes and erode livelihoods. For many smallholder farmers, the challenge is compounded by having little or no financial cushion to absorb these setbacks, leaving their livelihoods increasingly vulnerable.

The Milly Fruits Processing plant’s launch was thus more than the opening of a new building, but what the plant represents for the county, its people who are farmers, and its future. The biggest disincentive to a farmer is investing in production when they are not guaranteed market for their produce in terms of both price and quantity.

The plant exists because several people decided to take a risk together. Milly Fruits brought the ambition and the capital. The County Government of Kilifi created the conditions for it to happen. The UK Government provided the funding and FSD Kenya, through the Sustainable Urban Economic Development (SUED) programme, de-risked the investment. The programme took enough of the early risk off the table, allowing private capital to follow — more than three times the seed funding in private investment.

This facility will buy fruits from more than 4,000 farmers — most of them smallholders, many selling into a formal market for the very first time. It is expected to create more than four thousand jobs over the next three years and to put over GBP 3.5 million (KShs 612.5 million) directly into the hands of farmers and workers. The facility will employ about 500 workers directly (about 60% women).

For Milly Fruits, the investment is fundamentally about creating a stronger connection between what farmers produce and the markets that can sustain their livelihoods.

“We watched hardworking farmers produce excellent fruit, only to see too much of it go to waste because there were not enough reliable markets or enough processing capacity. We knew there had to be a better way. That belief led to this investment,” said Azeem Rashid, Managing Director of Milly Fruits EPZ Ltd.

For Rashid, the opportunity extends beyond the factory itself. “Our future lies in processing more of what we grow, creating jobs here at home and exporting finished products proudly carrying the words ‘Made in Kenya’.”

The driver, the aggregator, the trader, the young woman working in the facility — each of them now has a stake in the fruits that used to rot in the sun. That is the multiplier effect. One investment, and the value ripples outward through an entire local economy. The plant will help retain more value within Kilifi County compared to previously when value was either lost or taken by others further along the value chain.

Moreover, the plant represents what FSD Kenya means by green and resilient growth. It runs its drying technology on renewable energy. It cuts food waste and helps farmers build practices that can stand up to a changing climate. Climate-smart and commercially viable are not opposites. Milly Fruits demonstrates that they can be the very same business.

This is precisely the kind of transformation the Sustainable Urban Economic Development (SUED) programme was designed to enable. Funded by the UK Government and implemented by FSD Kenya, SUED works with counties and municipalities to turn local economic potential into investable opportunities that can attract private capital. In Kilifi, that approach helped de-risk the Milly Fruits investment, enabling public funding to crowd in private capital while strengthening a local value chain that connects farmers, workers and markets. The result demonstrates how targeted public investment can unlock commercially viable businesses while creating jobs, strengthening livelihoods and supporting more resilient local economies.