Last month potatoes at the Whispers market in Nyeri were selling at between Sh400 to Sh500 but has now skyrocketed to Sh1,000 per 17 kg (a bucket).
Traders in Nyeri are now forced to source potatoes from Laikipia County.
Farms in Kieni constituency, which is the food basket for Nyeri County, have no produce to supply the market as rivers that they relied on for irrigation have dried up.
Families will have to dig deeper into their pockets to put a meaningful dish on their tables.
Nyeri town hotels are now shying away from preparing French fries, commonly known as chips, after potato prices skyrocketed from between Sh400 to Sh500 to hit a high of Sh1,000 per 17 kg (a bucket) within a month.
Dozens of fast food joints in the town are now worried about upsetting clients by serving small portions of the meal and have opted not to prepare the dish at all.
A plate of chips sells for a minimum of Sh100 and a maximum of Sh150.
“We have analysed the situation...potatoes are very expensive and customers want huge quantities. We don’t want to serve the customers little food that will be way below their expectations,” said Ms Alice Mwangi, owner of New Chicken World café.
She said they were previously using a 90 kg bag of potatoes but have cut down to using a bucket of the commodity all day.
“We are doing it to retain customers,” she added.
Hoteliers are also substituting potatoes with bananas to make Mukimo, a traditional food in the community.
Traders, who are now sourcing the commodity from Laikipia County, are left at the mercy of current rains which they hope will see the prices for various food commodities come down.
Apart from potatoes, families in the County will have to dig deeper into their pockets to put food on their tables.
Prices for a kilogramme of tomatoes have shot up from Sh50 to Sh80 in a month.
“The supplies were cut abruptly. We were not ready for a shortage,” said Mercy Kihara, a trader.
A kg of peas has also shot from Sh60 to Sh200, a 233 per cent increase.
Farms in Kieni constituency, which is the food basket for Nyeri County, have no produce to supply the market as rivers that they relied on for irrigation have dried up.
A kilogramme of onions is now selling at Sh80 up from Sh40, while vegetables have gone up 17 per cent with cabbage now selling at Sh40 up from Sh15.
According to traders in the area, everything will shoot up even further if the rains fail like it happened in the last season.
A kilogramme of beans is selling at Sh100 up from Sh80 last month while 90 kg of the same commodity is selling at Sh9,000 up from Sh6,000.
Prices for rice have gone up from Sh130 to Sh180 following a scarcity in production.
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