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On Sunday, Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria announced temporary lifting of the ban on macadamia nuts that has been in place in 2009.
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The CS said the ban has been lifted for one year to open up the market to foreign buyers.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The state has lifted the ban on exportation of raw macadamia nuts after senators sustained pressure to protect farmers.
Led by Kirinyaga Senator James Murango, the lawmakers said the ban had opened opportunity for brokers who benefitted at the expense of local farmers.
“For all that time, since the ban was imposed, farmers have gotten nothing. In fact, they have uprooted macadamia trees,” Murango said.
The Senate’s Agriculture Committee chairman said the brokers exploited farmers, buying their produce at throwaway price while they minted millions.
“Today, 150kg of macadamia costs Sh505 in the supermarket or about 3,600 per kg. But the broker buys the same quantity at between Sh20 and Sh30 from the farmer. Isn’t that exploitation?’ he said.
On Sunday, Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria announced temporary lifting of the ban on macadamia nuts that has been in place in 2009.
The CS said the ban has been lifted for one year to open up the market to foreign buyers.
“We are lifting the ban on exportation of lifting of raw macadamia to a year to bring into the country other buyers from all over the world. This will open market for competitiveness,” Kuria said.
The senators welcomed the CS’s move to free products to benefit the hardworking farmers.
“We are freeing the product. If you want to buy products from farmers, be competitive and pay the same way Chinese are paying,” he added.
In a bid to prohibit future bans that injure farmers, Murango has sponsored an amendment to the “draconian” Section 43 of the Agriculture and Food Authority Act 2013.
The section restricts local farmers from exporting the nuts except with written authority of the CS responsible for agriculture
“The laws are discriminating against macadamia, cashew nuts and bixa farmers,” he said.
“Four years ago, the nuts used to go for Sh180 a kilo when the Chinese were buying the nuts but now the prices have been slashed,” the senator said.
The importation of nuts and oil crop products is subject to the terms and conditions as specified to the local and international standards.
According to the Crops (Nuts and Oil Crops) Regulations 2020, importers and exporters must be a body corporate registered in Kenya with a valid tax compliance certificate.
Each consignment exported or imported is required to be accompanied by an import permit or certificate.
However, Narok Senator Ledama Olekina has instead said the legislation was made to kill the economy and promote cartels and brokers, saying the provision of the law has seen farmers terrorised by brokers.
He decried that despite about 90 per cent of macadamia produced in Kenya meant for export, farmers cannot sell directly to the export market.
The senator said that although global prices for raw macadamia range between Sh90 and Sh120 a kilo, local farmers are getting a paltry Sh20 a kilo.
Embu Senator Alexander Mundigi, in a request for statement, asked the committee to inquire whether there are plans to lift the ban and measures put by the government to avoid price fluctuations of raw macadamia nuts.
He also wanted to know the steps being taken to boost income from exports in a free market considering agricultural and food authority has lowered the per-kilogramme price from Sh200 to Sh30.
“The committee should provide information whether local macadamia nut companies have the capacity to process and market the nuts for small scale farmers,” he said.
Kenya has around 200,000 macadamia small farms spread across Embu, Meru, Machakos, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Taita Taveta, Tharaka Nithi, Baringo, Murang’a and Nyeri.
Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Bungoma, Kakamega and Nandi counties have joined the troop with high global demand for the crop leading to a local mad rush to grow the crop.
The farms currently produce an estimated 41,000 tonnes in-shell nuts, constituting about 20 per cent of global supply.
Processing companies have set up shop in Murang’a, Embu, Taita Taveta and are now expanding to Bungoma. So far, the country has more than 30 industries buying the nuts from farmers, with most simply processing the produce for export.
Coastal Kenya has a higher concentration of cashew nut trees, with almost 70,000 smallholder farmers along the coastline.
The nuts are in high demand in Germany and Nordic countries and, in 2015, Kenya exported 600 metric tonnes of cashew kernels.