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Over 1000 passion fruit farmers in Kwale County now have market leverage thanks to recently launched Farmers Produce Collection and Marketing centers, which will allow them to participate in price negotiations, something that has long been the preserve of brokers. The successful move now opens doors to adoption across the country especially to dozens of cash crops which have stalled on market hiccups.
The 20 collection centers, officially opened on the 22nd November 2013 at Manyatta Farmers Produce Collection center, have set to bridge the yawning deficit between processors’ appetite for fruits and smallholder farmers’ low quantities that have failed to influence market forces. And in a county still struggling to define its flagship cash crop that would steer it to economic stardom, the idea couldn’t have come at a better time.
Chaperoned by Micro Enterprises Support Programme Trust (MESPT) through its Agricultural Business Development (ABD) program, the project has been built on the emerging tenets of raising agricultural output—better seeds, better farm management and clear market channels. It has assembled major players across the value chain, including farmers, buyers, financial institutions and agro dealers in ensuring satisfaction of all.
ALLFRUIT EPZ Limited, a fruit processing company at the Coast used to buy Sh6 – 12 per kilo, but has risen to Sh14 – 25 as the number and consistency in supply stabilized. We require 10,000 tonnes of passion fruits annually, and the farmers are only managing to supply a paltry 400 tonnes.
Under the model the centers have been instrumental in placing the real value of the fruits grown which allow farmers in deciding how much they should plant. “The fact that buyers agree on a price that the farmers in the collection centers quote, which they would not do if they were buying from individual farmers, means that we have reached another step of serious farming for business, which is one of the cornerstones of lifting our people from poverty,” said Hon. Safina Kwekwe Tsungu, the Kwale County Executive member for Industry, Trade and Investment, who was the Chief Guest at the launch of the 20 collection centres.
Do you think there is enough development being done in your county regarding marketing?
