‘Make in India’ Gets a Further Boost with Kenyan Interest in Indian Warehousing and Agri Derivatives Sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign gets a major boost in the African country. Kenya is looking at India to develop an agricultural ecosystem that is led by the government’s favorite Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) model along with the Agri derivatives trading platform and e-warehouse receipt system.

A high-powered Kenyan delegation visited India last week during which they met top officials of India’s leading agri-derivatives bourse National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) and its subsidiary companies National E-Repository Limited (NRL) and National Commodity Clearing Limited (NCCL) at the Exchange’s head-office. Earlier the Exchange also gave a detailed presentation about its FPO initiatives before the delegation.

“We have nearly a decade of experience in supporting FPOs through their linkage to derivatives platforms. We are also engaged in their integration with the thee-NWR  ​(Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts) system and electronic auctioning platform, in turn offering the entire agri-market infrastructure ecosystem under one roof. We are committed to helping Kenyan government authorities to replicate this ecosystem as it has the potential to revolutionize the farm sector in Kenya,” said Mr. Arun Raste, managing director and Chief Executive officer, NCDEX.

NCDEX will work with Kenya’s warehouse regulator to reform the farm sector by adopting India’s Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) model and e-warehouse receipt system, he said.

The Exchange has offered its support in a meeting with a delegation of Kenya’s senior government officials led by the country’s Warehousing Receipt Council and Indo SME Global chamber. The delegation is in India to study the FPO and e-NWR ecosystems which can help them to expand their warehouse receipt system. 

NCDEX is the leader in agricultural marketing reforms through market linkage of over 410 FPOs covering nearly 1.2 million farmers. The exchange also has a fully-owned subsidiary NCDEX E-Repository Ltd (NERL) which is India’s top e-repository with a mandate to implement the electronic negotiable warehouse receipt (e-NWR) system in the country.

Kenya is especially interested in the farmer’s connect that NCDEX has successfully developed over the years through FPOs. During their visit to India, the delegation has also visited many storage and warehousing infrastructure to study the real-time working of their deposit and quality safeguard system.

Kenya’s delegation was led by Mr. Lawrence Omuhaka, Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ms. Jane Mumbi Ngige Chairperson, Warehouse Receipt System Council among others. Mr. Kedar Deshpande, CEO of NERL has also explained the operations of the e-NWR system and its benefits to farmers in accessing cheaper credit and safer and regulated storage.