Potato farmers seek protection from brokers

Potato farmers in Kenya want the government to intervene and control the farm gate prices of potatoes to protect them from the brokers, the middlemen said to be making extra-ordinary profits from the crop.

The government has a law requiring that a full bag of 110 kilograms of potato must be flat at the top instead of an extended but this has been ignored by the brokers as municipal council authorities fail to enforce that law. Farmers are usually at the mercy of the brokers and therefore have no control of the packaging because those who insist on adhering to the government packaging standards are avoided by the brokers, risking their harvest to rot because they do not have access to better storage facilities.

They are forced by circumstances to dispose their harvest as soon as possible. "The law on packaging is not working and even if it works, the brokers may decide to lower the prices they offer for the smaller bag of potatoes. The best option is to control the price per kilogram," Junghae Wainaina, chairman of Midland Limited, a farmers-owned potato processing company, said on Thursday.

While a standard bag of potato sold at the farm gate level or at wholesale should be 110 kilograms, the extension of the bag by brokers makes the weight jump an average of 200 kilograms. Since farmers sell per bag and not per kilogram, they make heavy losses. The brokers however repackage the bag to generate additional 100 kilogram even before they factor in their profit margin, making more than 100 per cent in profit. The result has been that the cost of a kilogram of potatoes in an extended bag averages 0.96 U.S dollar while in organized market where brokers are not involved, the minimum cost per kilogram is 0.18 dollar. "The difference is too high and something should be done to enable potato farmers' benefit better from their efforts," Wainaina told Xinhua in an interview in Nairobi.

Jackson Mwangi, who buys potatoes from brokers and sells to retailers at the Wakulima Market in Nairobi, the capital's largest fresh produce market said brokers are the main beneficiaries in the whole potato marketing chain because they not only influence the pricing when buying from farmers, but also the quantity when they repackage. He said while brokers know it is against the law to extend the potato bags, the lack of enforcement of the law makes them continue with the practice because it offers them better profits. "It is good that the government is now keen to look at the industry and we are confident that this issue is among that will be addressed as soon as possible," he said.

Potato is Kenya's second staple food crop after maize, however it does not enjoy same policy attention as that accorded to maize. The government recently formed the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) that is mandated to come up with new policy to guide the growth of the industry.

"The extended bag is not only unfair to farmers but because of its weight, it spoils the potatoes that are at the bottom of the bag, creating unnecessary losses," said Wachira Kuguongo, the Chief Executive Officer of (NPCK). "We have started engaging the local government officials, starting with the City Council of Nairobi so that the right packaging requirement can be enforced," he said. (Xinhua)