By JOSEPH MUCHIRI
Embu,Krnya:Macadamia processors have raised an alarm that the sector could be ruined by harvesting of premature nuts due to demand by foreign buyers.
Nut Processors Association of Kenya managing director Charles Muigai said Chinese companies buying the produce encouraged the harvest of immature nuts which would damage Kenya’s image as the producer of quality nuts in the long run.
risky business
Speaking during the launch of a macadamia payment programme through M-Pesa by Jungle Nuts in Embu town, Muigai said immature nuts had inferior quality and taste and would repulse buyers.
He said Kenya exports 98 per cent of its macadamia earning the country about Sh5 billion in foreign exchange and there was a risk the business would be ruined by the new trend. Muigai said China had recently started macadamia plantations of over 4 million seedlings with the sole aim of becoming a major producer of the crop. “Chinese investors want to dominate the macadamia sector by killing Kenyan nuts when their plantations are ready,” he said.
Jungle Nuts managing director Patrick Wainaina said the M-Pesa payment mode seeks to eliminate middlemen and encourage a savings culture.
