The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCBP) plans to establish 21 warehouses run by private investors across nine counties in a strategy aimed at fighting exploitative middlemen and brokers.
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 (PPP) arrangement.
The NCPB will drive the concession deals under the warehouse receipts system (WRS).
‘The project entails development of new (green-field) warehouses, refurbishing a brownfield bulk storage silo, and managing the operation and maintenance (O and M) of existing facilities certified under the warehouse receipts system (WRS),’ 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 that commodity without having to deliver the physical commodity, 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.
These 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 that they can cash at financial institutions participating in the programme to meet their financial needs. The amount is recovered after they selling 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 (eWRS-CR) in February 2026 in partnership with TradeMark Africa, with funding support from the British High Commission in Kenya.
At the time of the eWRS-CR launch in February, the Trade ministry revealed that 114 warehouse receipts covering nearly 600,000 kilogrammes of deposited commodities had already been registered. The WRS, 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 the introduction of derivatives trading in futures, options, and index trading later on. Sectors will include agriculture, metals, minerals, and energy before diversifying into currencies and other asset classes.
The 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-upon price, regardless of what it currently trades at,