Dubai-based food and beverage company, Nutridor plans a new $15 million (Ksh2.25 billion) processing plant for value-added dairy products such as cheese and butter, that will target the Kenya and Tanzania markets.

Nutridor has a vast network of operations in the Middle East and Africa region, with customers in over 15 countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, Angola, Gambia, Ghana, Senegal and the six oil-producing nations under the Gulf Corporation Council including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arabs Emirates.

“We are actively working towards making an entry into the East African market. We want to come to Kenya and Tanzania with value-added products such as cheese and butter. Liquid milk is already there in these markets and we want to focus on something different” Nutridor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sankha Biswas told Business Daily in an interview at the company factory in Dubai on Monday.

The new value-added products processing plant will be built adjacent to Nutridor’s current factory within Dubai industrial city, which was launched in May this year with an initial capacity of 60,000 litres of Abevia milk products a day.

Mr Biswas said the company's products will enter the East Africa market through distributor partnerships.

“As a strategy, we use partners to bring our products to the market. For East Africa, we have few prospects we are in discussions with currently,” he said.

The dairy and cheese market in Kenya remains rich for investment, given the minimal focus by processors on this niche product segment.

In Kenya, butter and cheese are a preserve of the affluent and are used at the breakfast table as well as in cooking.

High-end hotels also use it for application on bread that is served alongside soup in the first course of their meals.

Most processors in Kenya focus on the mass-market liquid milk products that are popular in most households which helps to drive volumes and sales.