Nuts traders want processors to pay them Sh60 million

Nuts traders say they are owed Sh60 million and they want the money paid.

The Nuts Traders Association of Kenya is demanding that processors pay farmers arrears amounting to Sh60 million for macadamia sold this year.

The association said some processors bought the nuts from farmers in Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Embu and Meru counties on credit since January.

But the processors have been buying the nuts from other counties and paying at the farm gate.

Nutak chairman John Kihara told journalists at Kenol town on Saturday that the association had received numerous complaints from farmers in the region about their payments arrears.

Kihara said farmers needed their money urgently as they dealt with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the pandemic had put farmers at a disadvantage as it had closed up some of the international markets and left them at the mercy of a few processors who were still able to buy and sell their nuts.

This, Kihara said, had caused macadamia prices to stagnate at Sh60 per kilogram.

“Last year, the association met and set the prices at Sh200 per kilogram but we have been unable to implement that decision this year due to the effects of coronavirus. What we want is processors to pay farmers what they owe them so they can support their families,” he said.

Kihara said it was wrong for nut processors to fail to honour the efforts farmers put into their farms but they were not paid their dues.

The association now wants the processors to pay the arrears before they could buy any more macadamia nuts.

“If they do not pay, we will mobilise protests in every affected county and make public their names,” Kihara said.

He said processors should not take advantage of the fact that not many of their counterparts were currently able to get orders from abroad as most of the buying countries had been affected by Coronavirus.

The association’s secretary general John Ndirangu said macadamia farmers had been dealt a major blow especially since there was a price slump last year occasioned by the harvesting of immature nuts.

“We had hoped this year would be better but it has also been affected by the coronavirus,” he said.

He, however, urged farmers to be patient and take advantage of the rains to plant more macadamia trees that he said would benefit them in future.

He urged processors to consider increasing the price to at least Sh100 to support farmers, adding that the low prices would discourage them.

“We are asking those processors still buying macadamia from farmers not to exploit them because of the pandemic. They can sacrifice a small percentage of their profit so that farmers’ suffering are not aggravated,” Ndirangu said.

He reiterated that Nutak would not allow processors to take nuts from farmers without paying them and that it would engage a lawyer to pursue cases on behalf of farmers.

The association’s coordinator Gilbert Maina said processors would be compelled to pay the arrears with interest if they did not pay in seven days.

Edited by Henry Makori