Scramble for nuts push farmers back to cultivation

By Aloyse Muinde

More than 450 macadamia farmers in Taita-Taveta county have now increased acreage under cultivation. The move follows a market deal with a foreign company that could see farmers sell the produce at double the price in the local market.

This could open up cultivation of the nut in other areas as multinationals chase the highly valued Kenyan nut due to its disease free and organic growing environment.

Under the umbrella of Taita Macadamia Farmers Association (TMFA), the farmers have inked a deal with Tencents African company to purchase macadamia at Sh70 per kilo.

The farmers have expressed optimism in the deal and agreed to increase cultivation of the nut they had abandoned on poor pay.

A kilo of the nuts retails at between Sh30-Sh35 in the local market even after tedious growing process that doesn’t let a farmer recoup the expenses.  But incentives like high buying price is enough to spur farmers into the lucrative venture as the appetite for the nut reaches fever pitch. One macadamia tree has the potential of producing 50 kilos.

“We are guaranteed that Tencents Africa will give our farmers a reliable market since farmers will now have a reliable market which is a departure from the past where the market was unstructured and disjointed,” said Baldwin Mwangoji the chairman of TMFA. The farmer group has received the fairtrade certification that shows that their nuts abides by good agricultural practices and their farming preserves the environment.

As a result of this demand for the nut by other international buyers has risen in the recent past to an extent that they cannot match.

Bigger market

“We have received proposals from interested buyers from European buyers like Holland and Yugoslavia. The  onus now is with the farmers to intensify their efforts and increase the supply to meet the increasing demand,” said Mwangoji. Currently Taita Taveta produces 50 tonnes annually even as demand has been rising and currently stands at five times more than the farmers are producing.  As global demand for various nutritious fats and oils that are cholesterol free grows, multinationals are turning to Africa where the African grown nut is highly priced.

 In Central Kenya, nut companies have introduced incentives such as high yielding seeds, free fertiliser and competitive prices. This move is aimed to lure the farmers back to a farming they abandoned years ago on poor farm-gate price.

Although macadamia was introduced into Kenya in 1944, Kenyan macadamia is far from meeting its full potential as an export crop. This is despite the country being the fifth largest exporter in the world. Kenya has an estimated 100,000 farmers of macadamia with 900,000 trees. However, in the past decade the majority of these farmers have neglected their trees due to unstable prices, unreliable corrupt brokers and uncertain market access.

As a result, macadamia export market has fallen short of its potential and farmers do not realise the income growth that they should.

But due to enhanced cultivation and processing, Kenyan nuts have emerged superior to those grown by its main competitors in Australia, Guatemala and South Africa.

Macadamia imports into the US total 20,000 tonnes with a value of about $50 million (Sh435 million).

—FarmBiz Africa