• Kenya is among leading producer of flowers
• It’s however facing stiff competition from Ethiopia
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
Flower farms are crying foul over lack of support from the government in increasing production and employment opportunities.
Through the Kenya Flower Council, the farmers said unlike coffee, tea and sugar sectors, they had been sidelined despite raking in billions of shillings annually in foreign exchange.
“We have seen the government give tax holidays to coffee, tea and sugar farmers,” Council CEO Clement Tulezi told the Star on the phone on Saturday.
“We are calling for the same in this sector that is the second-largest foreign exchange earner.”
This comes a couple of days after the farmers called on the government to pay them more than Sh12 billion VAT funds that date back to August last year.
In the last couple of years, the national government has waived debts owed by coffee, tea and sugar farmers, while giving a wide berth to the floriculture sector.
Tulezi said the floriculture sector is one of the largest employers and tax remitters in the country.
He said despite raking in billions of shillings, the sector is plagued by high taxes, rising flight charges and skyrocketing electricity prices.
Tuluezi added that the recent introduction of the 16 per cent VAT through the Finance Act would have adverse effects on flower farmers.
He said prices of fertiliser and farm chemicals would rise sharply, thus increasing the cost of production at a time when prices of flowers in the EU are still low.
“Some of these measures by the government are eroding investor confidence and pushing them to the neighbouring country of Ethiopia,” he said.
He said the pricing situation had been worsened by high freight charges.
“Currently we are paying $2.6 for 1kg compared to $1.9 for our main competitors in Ethiopia,” he said.
Speaking earlier, one of the top farmers, Jack Kneppers from Maridadi farm in Naivasha, admitted that the cost of fertiliser remains a challenge.
He said although farmers have not yet come out of the woods after the pandemic, there are some positives despite the high cost of production.
“We have seen freight charges start to stabilise in the last two months. Demand is high in Europe and the prices of flowers are reasonably fair,” Kneppers said.