(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya plans to open 21 grain warehouses to private investors across nine counties in a move aimed at curbing exploitative middlemen and brokers in the agricultural supply chain.
The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will drive the concession deals under the warehouse receipts system (WRS).
The Treasury said the depots will be set up in Tharaka Nithi, Nairobi, Nandi, Kwale, Lamu, Narok, Migori, Nakuru and Trans Nzoia counties under a public private partnership arrangement.
“The project entails development of new green field warehouses, refurbishing a brownfield bulk storage silo, and managing the operation and maintenance of existing facilities certified under the warehouse receipts system,” the PPP Unit of the National Treasury said.
The WRS is an arrangement in which commodity owners, traders or aggregators deposit their produce in a certified warehouse and are issued with documents known as warehouse receipts as proof of ownership. The receipt guarantees the quantity, quality and ownership of a stored commodity.
NCPB said the receipts may be negotiable or non negotiable. Negotiable receipts allow transfer of ownership of a commodity without having to deliver the physical goods, while non negotiable receipts must be endorsed upon transfer.
“The warehouse receipt system, under implementation, is envisaged to play a central role in ensuring that the grain market becomes more responsive and structured in trading with an overall aim of strengthening the commodity supply chain and trading regime,” NCPB said in a brief.
The receipts can be used as collateral for a loan or traded as negotiable instruments. As producers keep their grain in stores, they are issued with receipts they can cash at financial institutions taking part in the programme to meet their financial needs. The amount is recovered after they sell their produce.
The NCPB piloted the WRS concept in Kitale, Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi and Meru.
As of September 2026, there were stocks of sunflower, white maize, green grams, soybeans and coffee held in certified warehouses in Nairobi, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru counties.
The government launched an Electronic Warehouse Receipt System Central Registry in February 2026 in partnership with TradeMark Africa, with funding support from the British High Commission in Kenya.
At the time of the registry launch in February, the Trade ministry said 114 warehouse receipts covering nearly 600,000 kilogrammes of deposited commodities had already been registered. The receipts, which are negotiable and transferable, will be mainly traded on the Kenya National Multi commodity Exchange (Komex).
The commodities exchange, which is regulated by the Capital Markets Authority, is an online marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade in commodities with an assurance of quality, delivery and payment.
Instruments at the exchange will include spot trading in commodities, with derivatives trading in futures, options and index trading to be introduced later. Sectors will include agriculture, metals, minerals and energy before diversifying into currencies and other asset classes.
Komex will operate depots where farmers will deposit produce for storage pending a decision to sell when prices improve. Traders rarely deliver any physical commodities through a commodities exchange. Instead, they trade futures contracts, where parties agree to buy or sell a specific quantity of the commodity at an agreed price, regardless of what it currently trades at.