Brokers make a kill as farmers count losses

Tomato farmers in some parts of Central are staring at losses due to a glut in the market.
A number of farmers from Kirinyaga County, the leading producer of tomatoes in the country are now selling their produce at throwaway prices because of oversupply in key markets. 

In Murinduku, Kirinyaga County, Antony Muriithi a tomato farmer, says brokers are even taking advantage of the situation to exploit them.

“A Kg of tomatoes is currently fetching less than Sh100 at the farm while brokers who come to the farm with 60kg crates are buying my produce at Sh4,000. This is too little because for me to break even, I need to sell one 60kg crate at Sh 15,000,” he says.

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Fuel crisis
He points out that another challenge that farmers are facing is that while they are ready to harvest , the fuel crisis and high competition have conspired to make it impossible for them to reach the markets in Kutus and Kagio. 

“This is harvesting season, and unfortunately, most farmers take their produce to market at the same time. On top of having excess produce, we are also struggling to take it to the market because of transport problems. This leads to post harvest losses,” Muriithi says.

Now bogged down with problems, farmers are calling brokers to their farms to buy the tomatoes at throwaway prices to avoid the produce going to waste.

Cost of production

“Tomatoes are highly perishable, they cannot last more than two weeks once they are harvested. To avoid this scenario, we need to have processing plants and cold rooms in major markets so that we can prolong the shelf life of the produce and save farmers from losses,” Muriithi says.

It is worth noting that the cost of tomato production has also gone up with a bag of fertiliser going for Sh6,000, while pesticides cost between Sh6,000 and Sh10,000.

The Smart Harvest spoke to a number of farmers who expressed their frustrations. Michael Chomba, abandoned French bean farming to cultivate tomatoes, due to the poor market.

However the challenges he faced with French beans have also plagued his tomato farming venture.

“We are facing a challenge of over supply in the market because we all plant during the dry season and harvest when the rainy season begins. In such a scenario, where we all harvest at the same time, it is difficult to make profit,” Chomba says.

He further explains that the market was experiencing a glut because tomatoes are consumed locally, in major towns like Nairobi and the export market is yet to be fully explored.

Chomba says farmers are also spending a fortune to control pests such as those that cause deformities and rotting in the fruits.
“It takes three months to grow tomatoes and you have to control the pests throughout the growth period to avoid losses,” he says.

Going forward, he says tomato farmers should form a cooperative society that can help them demand for better prices, acquire assets such as a cold storage rooms and trucks and processing machines to add value to their produce.

At Gathoge village in Kirinyaga County, Muturi Rugano, a tomato farmer for the last eight years, also decries the high cost of production.

“The current cost of production is too high eating into our profit margins,” Rugano says.

Rugano says one of the challenges leading to the tomato glut is the weather and land use during the dry and rainy seasons.
“Most of the farms that grow tomatoes experience flooding during the rainy seasons and are only ideal for farming during the dry seasons. Because of that reality, farmers have limited option on when they can grow and harvest their crop,” he explains.
Interestingly, in Kieni in Nyeri , traders cannot meet demand for the tomatoes in the market because majority of the farmers in the area have abandoned the crop. Joyce Muthoni a trader at Narumoru Market says she had traveled for a long distance only to secure one 60kg crate of tomatoes which she was selling at Sh80 per kg.
“There are no tomatoes in the farms I used to rely on to get produce, most of the farmers have failed to grow the crop due to the high cost of production, and prolonged drought,” he says.