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Banana farmers target more income with beer plant

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A banana trader at Ntharene market in Meru. PHOTO | FILE

Banana farmers in Imenti South have launched a wine and beer factory in value addition drive.

The factory in Ntharene is expected to put more money in the pockets of the more than 5,000 members of the Meru Banana Farmers’ Co-operative Society.

Society chairman Lawrence Mwirigi said the project was started to enable famers do away with brokers.

“We came up with the initiative to ensure farmers earn more for their products after value addition,” he said.

Apart from alcohol, the farmers also produce banana crisps, flour and animal feeds which are used to flavour other foods. The beer is packaged in 300ml bottles and has an alcohol content of 6.2 per cent.

The wine, in a 750ml bottle, has not been approved yet because it was found to have an alcohol content of 14 per cent.

The beverages are for local consumption and the co-operative said it was working on reducing the alcohol content before going commercial.
The officials said have applied for a permit to produce the wine and beer in large quantities.

Recently, the county government handed over wine processing equipment to the co-operative.

County agriculture executive Jenaro Guantai said value addition would help farmers earn more from their produce and create jobs as well as spur industrial growth.

“Meru now accounts for 40 per cent of Kenya’s total annual banana production. We are producing more bananas than last year,” said Mr Guantai. He added that banana is becoming an important cash crop in the county, especially in tea and coffee growing zones.

Kenya Agricultural Productivity Programme has helped scale up banana production through training farmers on best practices and supplying them with ripening kits, packaging crates and weighing scales.

The ripening kits, the farmers say, is a way of adding value because ripe bananas cost more than raw ones.

Many traders from Nairobi and Nakuru flock to major markets along the Meru-Nairobi highway to buy bananas.

Some of the main varieties cultivated in Meru are sweet bananas (Gacukari), FIA, Cavendish and Kampala.