By George Mwangi
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NAIROBI, Kenya--Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever N.V.
(UN) plans to invest 150 million euros ($201 million) in a new
manufacturing plant in Kenya, the president's office said
Friday.
Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman met President Uhuru
Kenyatta in Nairobi on Thursday. The new plant will aim to meet the
company's expanding interests in eastern Africa, including in
Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Unilever also plans to expand its factories in the hill-top
tea-growing farmlands of Kericho to increase output to 50,000
metric tons a year from 30,000 tons at present, Mr. Polman
said.
The company's Kericho-based tea business has 8,400 hectares of
tea bushes and seven factories.
Kenya, which is East Africa's biggest economy, expects to
produce 410, 000 tons of tea in 2013, up from 369, 000 tons the
previous year, according to the Tea Board of Kenya.
Tea is the country's biggest earner of foreign exchange, and
last year generated $1.2 billion, the central bank said.
Kenya ranks third behind China and India in global tea
production.
Write to George Mwangi at realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires