Kenya: Reforms in cashew nut industry bearing fruit

Reforms instituted by the cashew nuts industry this season are beginning to pay off, with farmers fetching better prices. A kilo of nuts is earning up to Sh46 at the farm gate compared to Sh34, which they earned last season. Although production is expected to decline while other players have emerged following the successful ban of the export of raw nuts, self regulation efforts have contributed to the better prices, market analysts say. Following farmers’ apathy, which threatened the industry, cashew nut processors, the ministry of Agriculture and farmers, agreed in November last year — when the current harvest season began — to work together.
The chief executive officer of the newly-created Nut Processors Association of Kenya (NutPAK), Mr Charles Muigai, said a working committee of 15 members composed of seven processors, ministry officials and farmers drawn from eight cashew nut catchments areas, was formed and set the nuts minimum price at Sh35 a kilo.
“Although some farmers are still bartering nuts to middlemen for household goods such as flour, the organised marketing this season has brought rewards,” Ms Phoebe Odhiambo, coast provincial director for agriculture said. The industry was dominated by middlemen who offered poor farm gate prices. As a result, only a handful of farmers have been able to engage in cashew nuts farming as a commercial venture. Mr Gachanja Githende, a managing partner with Institutional Development and Management Services (IDM) which has researched on the industry, said the farm gate prices that reach farmers are poor for the growth of the industry. Through NutPAK, processors will now be able to coordinate and promote production. Wonder Nut, Equatorial Nut and Kenya Nuts Ltd, have all established a nursery, according to Mr Muigai. Unless processors rehabilitate old trees, sponsors and organises the farmers in common interest groups, the production will continue to decline. The production this season is expected at 8,000 tonnes a decline from about 10,000 tonnes produced last season.

(Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=77544)