|
|
Kenya: Enact Nuts Bill, Firm Urges State
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
11 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Stephen Mburu
Nairobi
A leading macadamia dealer has urged the government to fast-track a nut crop Bill to protect local farmers from unscrupulous foreign traders.
Equitorial Nut Processors's field operations manager, Mr Joseph Muturi, says The Nuts Crops Board Bill 2007, aims to protect nut farmers from shady brokers.
The draft Bill says in part: "No person shall export or import raw nuts unless he is registered by the board for that purpose."
"But buying and exportation of macadamia is a free-for all business and even tourists may come and leave the country with tones of macadamia," Mr Muturi told the Sunday Nation. The country's leading processors include Equitorial, Kenya Nut Company and Embu.
Mr Muturi claimed that two Chinese firms were allegedly involved in unfair nut business practices saying that the firms (names withheld) were directly buying unripe fruits from farmers and taking the products to the world market.
Ideally, macadamia are ripe for harvesting only after they drop to the ground. But, Mr Muturi claimed the firms were luring farmers, especially in central Kenya, with money to harvest the nuts prematurely. The allure of money is forcing farmers to shake the fruits off the trees, Mr Muturi said.
"What these companies are doing is morally wrong. They are buying the premature nuts and drying them in makeshift processors in Nairobi before taking them to the international market. This is unfair business practice. The government should speed up the Bill and protect us."
He said China normally buys the nuts from Kenyan processors but not directly from farmers. The new practice, he claimed, denied local farmers better prices compared to when they waited and sold ripe nuts.
The manager said nut processors had invested a lot of money in educating farmers against the dangers of harvesting macadamia prematurely. The practice led to supply of low quality nuts to the international market.
"We are waiting for the nuts to mature and buy from farmers. It is unfair for the traders to come and lure farmers with money to shake the nuts off the trees. Farmers also know it is wrong. But they are being lured with money to sell the nuts prematurely," Mr Muturi said.
|
The Kenya Nut Company has since stopped buying the nuts from farmers until prices on the international market improve. Poor quality of the harvested crop led to rejection of the 2006 crop that had been sent to India, China and Japan. Macadamia has been fetching farmers as low as Sh20 a kilogramme, representing a sharp fall from a high of Sh85 in 2005.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
