Boost production, food safety to expand export market share

South Eastern Kenya Economic Bloc (SEKEB) counties are known for their mangoes and incomes from mango farming contributes about 40 per cent of the farm household income in the region. Makueni County is a top mango producer with 1,469,625 mango trees grown by 28,696 farmers.

Despite mango’s potential contribution to economic and nutritional security for smallholder farmers, it has not been fully exploited due to challenges along the value chain. One major challenge is damage by fruit flies which has been reported to cause losses ranging from 40 to 80 per cent of the crop, depending on the locality, season and the variety. The impact of the fruit fly has led to increased cost of production, low quality fruits, high post-harvest losses and an export self-ban by the Government of Kenya to lucrative markets since fruit flies are classified as quarantine pests.