Two avocado farmers have filed an urgent case seeking to lift a
ban on exportation of avocados due to its shortage in the country.
The blanket ban was issued last week by the
Agriculture and Food Authority.
The two, James Mwangi and Fredrick Munyua through their lawyers Karugu Mbugua and Advocates filed the case on Monday arguing that the ban has rendered thousands of homes without a source of livelihood.
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They have listed
Attorney General, Agriculture CS and Agriculture and Food Authority as
the respondents.
"The AFA last week
issued a blanket ban on the export of the Fuerte and Hass varieties of avocados to the detriment of the applicants and small-scale avocado farmers hence the petitioners and small-scale avocado farmers are in real danger of being destitute, they said in their application.
The applicants further argued that there was no regard of the Constitution and legislative principles that prescribe the prerequisites of a fair administrative action and more so failed to issue sufficient notice to concerned farmers.
“The third respondents caused immeasurable losses to the applicants and small-scale avocado farmers who had already harvested their crops ready for the export market,” they said.
Kenya is the World's sixth largest producer of avocados.
“We have stopped the export of Fuerte and Hass varieties because traders would ship out immature crop because of high demand in the world market. However, we are going to lift the ban starting next month once harvesting starts,” Josephine Simiyu, head of Regulations and Compliance at HCD said during the ban.
The average price of a 90kg bag in the east African nation shot up to £17.91 (sh2581.88) in December, the highest price since May 2014, when it cost £18.87 (sh2720.28) per bag.
As a result, the price of single avocado rose from 14% to 56% in Nairobi and 7 per cent to 35 per cent elsewhere in the country, during the fruit’s high season.