Over 10,000 farmers attended the Murang’a county agri-business fair on Friday the 2nd August 2013. Special feature of the Fair was a Business to Business platform, hosted by Agri-ProFocus, where farmer organisations and agri-businesses could meet.

The Fair was hosted by Agri-ProFocus Kenya’s ‘Access to Finance’ innovation community, under the leadership of the Kenya Livestock Producers Association. The guest of honour was Hon. Mwangi Wa Iria, the Murang’a county governor. In his keynote address, Hon. Mwangi noted that the county government was interested in partnering with all stakeholders to drive agriculture in the county.

Scouting for opportunities
The dusty Ihura stadium, the venue of the Fair, had been a beehive of activity from Thursday 1st August onwards, as agricultural service providers competed to secure the best-positioned exhibition tents. The 68 exhibition tents were fully taken up a day before the event. This forced some exhibitors to brave the hot sun, because they had to showcase their products and services out in the open.

Farmers drawn from Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Kiambu counties started arriving as early as 7.00 am. Throughout the day, over 10,000 visitors were registered. Many exhibitors organised a mini-forum so as to gather feedback from farmers on their products and services.

B2B Platform
While the main exhibition was in progress, an Agri-ProFocus Business-2-Business platform bringing together 18 key farmer-based institutions and corporate-focused service providers was running parallel in a nearby hall. The service providers were mostly financial institutions that target producer organisations.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to meet representatives of farmer groups from across the region. We have made very promising business contacts”, said Mrs Carol Kiragu, Regional Manager for Kenya Women Finance Trust.

Way forward
After the very successful fair in Murang’a, Agri-ProFocus will be organising the Trans-Nzoia county Agri-Business Aair on 6th September 2013 at the Kitale Municipal stadium.