Macadamia farmers have been urged not to cut down macadamia trees over the poor prices the commodity fetched last season.
Nut Traders Association of Kenya chairperson Johnson Kihara has assured farmers that the prices will get better once the inflation that is being experienced in most parts of the globe stabilises.
Kihara said the war between Russia and Ukraine is the biggest culprit as it has destabilised most macadamia buying countries.
The main buyers of Kenyan macadamia are the US, European Union, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Canada.
The Nutrak chairperson said consumers are now focusing on their primary needs, such as foodstuff and gas as the cost of living soars, and shunning commodities that are considered secondary needs.
The drastic drop in the nuts’ market saw most main processors fail to buy them during the March-April season after incurring losses.
This left farmers at the mercy of a few smaller processors who bought the commodity at between Sh30 and Sh60 depending on the quality.
A number of farmers had abandoned other crops in favour of macadamia after it fetched high prices of up to Sh120 per kilogramme last year, earning them Sh4 billion.
This year, however, some farmers were forced to hawk their nuts that sold for as low as Sh10 per kilogramme in local markets due to lack of buyers.
With more than 6,000 farmers planting the crop, the country produces 65,000 metric tonnes of macadamia annually and is the third largest producer of macadamia globally.
In January this year, the organisation urged farmers to brace for poor prices after top processors met buyers in the US and were informed of the impending reduction in prices.
Some of the processors, Kihara said, had already stocked tonnes of macadamia owing to the good prices it fetched last year and ended up making losses.
But the Nutrak official said that the prices of most commodities have gone down and called on farmers to diversify their farming to cushion themselves.
In February this year, I called for a meeting and informed farmers that prices would be going down this year.
“This sector has positioned itself as a top revenue earner and will strengthen once again after some time. The important thing is for farmers not to get discouraged and cut down trees,” he said.
More than 90 percent locally-produced macadamia is exported to other countries with Kenyans consuming only about 10 per cent.
In 2009, Kenya was one of the three macadamia producing countries in the world that included South Africa, Australia and US, as well as Hawaii island.
The country produced about 20 per cent of the global macadamia demand, with majority of the producers being small-scale farms. In 2020, however, the demand for local nuts declined by about 40 per cent that was blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic.
The crop has also seen 15 countries produce it, threatening Kenya’s position as a top macadamia exporter.
Countries such as China, Guatemala, Malawi, Vietnam, Colombia and New Zealand have taken to farming the crop in the last decade.
But Kihara said demonopolisation of the sector that has seen processors increase from about five to 41 has liberalised the sector and advantaged farmers by creating competition.