The National Agricultural Export board (NAEB) has signed a partnership deal with Farm Gate East Africa Limited, a Kenyan company to promote production of macadamia and its exports. The firm specialises in macadamia nuts and cashew nuts processing and packaging. Macadamia are nutritional nut-like seeds that are also used for many purposes, including the production of skin care oil. It is both a cash and food crop.

Amb George William Kayonga, the NAEB chief executive officer, said the firm will support planting of one million macadamia trees across the country in the next 10 years to increase production.

"Already 200 hectares of consolidated land have been identified in Nyanza District, where the project is expected to be kick-started on Monday (yesterday) before it is rolled out to other parts of the country,” Kayonga said.

Kayonga added that they are targeting to plant 100,000 trees of macadamia annually, noting that the project is part of the plan to diversify exports and encourage agro-forestry.

Jassat Mahomed, the chief executive officer of Farm Gate East Africa, said the project is expected to benefit over 20,000 farmers. He said the firm will buy the nuts at about $2 per kilogramme.

Under the partnership, the investor will construct a processing plant in Kigali with the capacity to process 10 million kilos of macadamia before the first harvest. There are already three macadamia processing plants in Rwanda, including Rwanda Nuts.