Nakuru county has issued the first Warehouse Operator’s license to National Cereals and Produce Board Store No. 4 at Nakuru NCPB Depot.
The county is the first to implement Warehouse Receipt System under the new law. The store has a capacity to hold 50,000 90kg bags or 4,500 tons. The licence was issued on March 3.
Many farmers were not comfortable with the system, which needed a legal framework.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya gazetted the Warehouse Receipt System Regulations 2021 on February 1. This provided the regulatory framework to operationalise the Warehouse Receipt System Act 2019.
In June 2019, Parliament passed the Warehouse Receipts Systems Act. This followed the establishment of the Warehouse Receipt System Council inaugurated on July 29 last year.
While inaugurating the council, Munya said the WRS will help in improving commodity storage, reduce post-harvest losses and control value chain inefficiencies.
He said the system seeks to increase financial earnings for farmers, traders and service providers in the agricultural sector.
He said the WRS will lead to development of aggregation and offtake centres countrywide. It will also lead to a network of modern certified agricultural produce warehouses, and linkages with structured trading platforms such as commodity exchanges and auctions.
Agriculture PS Hamadi Boga explained the WRS whereby private operators will provide warehousing facilities.
Private warehouse operators must be registered by the Warehouse Receipt Council and the Agriculture and Food Authority.
“So when farmers harvest their produce, instead of rushing to the market which drives the prices down, they have places or the warehouses where they can deposit their produce," Boga said.
"In exchange they get a receipt which is a legal tender and they are able to sell their produce when the price is right by just selling the receipts,” he said.
The PS said that those who want to purchase the produce will not have to go to the farm, but instead go to the warehouse operators in the system and they can bid for it and buy it there.
“The WRS serves two purposes," he said.
First, farmers are able to sell their produce when the price is right and hence will earn more.
Second, they are shielded from post-harvest losses, which are responsible for 30 per cent of the losses, the PS said.
Enock Matte, the communication head of the WRS Council, said farmers in Nakuru can now deposit their cereals and obtain a warehouse receipt.
“Sensitisation of the system for county officers, farmer leaders and stakeholders has been done in Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Meru, Embu and Nyeri counties,” Matte said.
Joseph Kimote, the National Cereals and Produce Board managing director, said so far 58 warehouses and one silo complex have been certified.
Fifty-eight stores have completed the inspection and certification process for consideration as certified warehouses under WRS. The 58 warehouses and one silo complex across the country have been certified,” Kimote said.
(Edited by V. Graham)
