Tomato factory will help solve issue of produce waste

Tomato farmers in Laikipia County continue to count losses as heavy rains pound various parts of the country.

Mr Ndirangu Kingori, a farmer at Wangwachi village in Laikipia west, is among those who had taken a loan to venture into commercial tomato farming, but now he is staring at losses.

The start of the rains early this month was a sign of good things as Kingori, who has farmed for ten years, expected good harvests from his farm.

The father of five children, two in university, had obtained a Sh500,000 loan from a local bank early this year to invest in his five-acre farm adjacent to Wangwachi dam.

As part of production costs, on each an acre of tomatofarm he spent Sh100,000. In return, he expected a 100 per cent profit, which would have helped clear the loan.

But Mr Kingori, 50, got a rude shock last week when he was harvesting his tomatoes.

The rains that have hit the area in the last two months have caused a tomato glut in the county especially in Laikipia west where the crop does well.

Tomatoes worth thousands of shillings have been rotting away in the farms as there is no ready market.

Just like Mr Kingori, hundreds of farmers in the region have incurred heavy losses due to the glut.

Currently, a crate of the produce which was previously being sold at Sh6,000 is now going for Sh2,000, that is more than a 50 per cent drop in prices.

“We are now being forced to give our tomatoes to cows and pigs.This is a big loss. As we speak, the bank is on my case because I need to start servicing the loan I took from them,” laments Mr Kingori.

Ms Julia Wambui, another farmer regrets that even the cows have refused to feed on the tomatoes.

“It is a sorry state of affair seeing that even the animals have stopped feeding on the produce. They are rotting away in the farms as we have nowhere to sell them,” she said.

She said they were now relying on buyers from Tanzania who were offering them better prices unlike the middlemen from the region.

“When they visit the area once in a week, that is when we sell the produce at Sh2,500 per crate. The local buyers are the ones who exploit us. We are now considering quitting the business,” she observes.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and Laikipia West MP Patrick Mariru came face to face with the situation on the ground last week and they promised to find a lasting solution.

Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi has said his administration was seeking the support of the private sector to establish a tomato sauce factory.

“We are ready to partner with any private company so that a factory can be established to end this market mess. It is regrettable that the only one near us is at Kabazi, many kilometres from these farms,” he noted.