Macadamia nut farmers wants the market set free

Macadamia farmers have asked the Government to allow Chinese businessmen to buy their produce.

They claimed that some local processors were responsible for the arrest and deportation of 15 Chinese merchants last month who were buying the nuts for Sh140 a kilogramme.

They complained they were facing hard times, citing an incident in 2016 when a local processor asked farmers to deliver the commodity to his stores, only for them to be asked to collect the produce as he had no market.

“We were asked to leave the commodity at the store but got a rude shock two weeks later when an employee of the processor called us and told us to go and collect our nuts,” said Caroline Njeri.

That year, Ms Njeri said, she incurred heavy losses since the nuts ended up rotting due to lack of a buyer.

Liberalise market

Another farmer, Elizabeth Wanjiru, said unless the Government liberalises the market, macadamia producers would never benefit.

“When the Chinese came in February they started buying our nuts at Sh140 a kilogramme and the prices were expected to appreciate as the season improved, but cartels that want us to remain poor engineered their arrest and deportation," she claimed.

Ms Wanjiru said the nuts were now selling at Sh70 a kilogramme, adding that had the Chinese not been deported “we would now be selling close to Sh200 a kilogramme.’’

The farmers also asked the county government to help them set up their factory to process the nuts.