Business Daily (Nairobi)
Solomon Mburu
16 June 2008
Illegal sales of the aloe plant are set to end next month following the legalization of commercial production and trade in the crop.
Aloe from Kenya has been finding its way into the black market for years since harvesting of the crop was banned by a presidential decree in the 1980s.
New regulations on the cultivation and trade of aloe will be launched next month, fully opening up the aloe industry.
The regulations are contained in a policy document on aloe that was gazetted by the minister of Wildlife in December last year.
"Due to the elections and the subsequent chaos that erupted not much could be done to operationalize them," said Mr Ibrahim Lubai, who is in charge of aloe exploitation at the Kenya Wildlife Services.
Increased earnings
With the launch next month, earnings from aloe are set to increase with better payment of the product for farmers.
According to Mr Lubia, opening up of the aloe industry will end illegal trade in aloe which has kept prices very low. "Aloe in the illegal market is very cheap. After legalizing, farmers will be able to organize themselves and demand better for better pay," he said.
Smuggling has caused the value of Kenyan aloe gum to fall to as low as $2 per kilogram. This is however expected to rise to $5 after the legalization.
Formerly, aloe has been smuggled out of the country by people who labelled it as a product with vegetable origins to pass through customs.
Boosting cultivation
To prevent overexploitation of naturally occurring aloe, the new regulations focus on plantation extraction. Farmers will be required to register with their district monitoring committees, which will give them permits.
The committees comprise of KWS, KEFRI, livestock and environmental officers who will give harvesting authority to farmers. Those who want to export the crop will also be required to obtain another permit from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
Producers of aloe-based health care products have been positioning themselves to take advantage of the expected boom.
Due to this, new entrants into the healthcare products relying on local aloe production have been slowly increasing thus boosting aloe cultivation in the country.
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