Macadamia farmers want brokers locked out

Macadamia farmers in Meru want the government to intervene and crack down on cartels that have impoverished them, saying they have regained control of the sector.

Brokers controlled the sector between 2009 when the export of raw nuts was banned in Kenya and 2012, buying the nuts for as low as Sh20 a kilo.

But farmgate prices improved from Sh30 a kilo in 2013 to last year when farmers sold the produce at Sh200 a kilo.

However, with the closure of industries after Covid-19 struck early this year, prices have plummeted to a low of Sh40 a kilo currently. Farmers are now accusing processors of colluding with brokers, who have made a comeback, to exploit them.

Meru Macadamia Farmers Association chairman Joshua Muriira said brokers had taken over the market once more and called on Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya to step in.

He said processors had exploited the Covid-19 pandemic and announced the suspension of buying yet they were receiving the produce from brokers.

“We are back to where we were before 2013 when the sector was controlled by brokers who exploited us.

Processors said they had suspended buying, but we know brokers are delivering the nuts to them. We call upon the minister to intervene,” Mr Muriira told the Business Daily in a phone interview yesterday.

He said over the past three months the middlemen were mopping up the produce at low prices.

The high season normally starts in March and ends in July but buying continues up to November.

business risk

Mr Daniel Murungi, a farmer in Kitheo, Tigania East, said he sold his 7,000 kilos at an average of Sh60 each last month, making Sh420,000.

“We have been hard-hit this season. It is a huge loss because last year I sold the same quantity at an average of Sh180 a kilo. They say it is due to the pandemic, but they are still buying. We don’t know where they are taking them,” he said.

However, agents who have been buying the produce said currently there was low demand from processors, which had forced some of them to close their businesses.

“I have stopped buying because the business is risky at the moment.

“Ones needs a lot of money to buy the nuts. Without a guaranteed market, a broker cannot risk a lot of money. We are waiting until the market stabilises before we resume buying,” said a broked who identified himself as Jackson.

James Karanja, Batian Nuts Limited managing director, said processors were still not buying nuts due to the pandemic, adding that the market would probably rebound in the first quarter of next year.

“Uptake of nuts is still low. We cannot buy the produce when we don’t have orders. We have instructed our field officers to find out who is buying,” Mr Karanja said in an earlier interview.