Middlemen problem for potato farmers here to stay

Potato farmers in the country who have in the recent past decried exploitation by middlemen over packaging of the commodity have been advised to place less emphasis on complaining over the packaging and focus their attention towards boosting production as a way of navigating the problem.

The farmers have been vocal in lamenting the Ministry of Agriculture’s failure to implement a regulation that recommends a standard 110 kg sisal bag. The middlemen instead package potatoes in 180kg bags and sell them at the same price as the farmers.

However in a joint statement, the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya (FPC), The Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) on Thursday poured cold water on the farmers’ demands saying that implementation of the proposed regulation will not guarantee results for them.

“We want to ask Kenyan farmers to move away from the insistence on the packaging. In any case, the middlemen are still there selling other fresh produce which are not limited in terms of packaging,” said FPC chief executive Okisegere Ojepat during a press conference in Nairobi.

Mr Ojepat however confirmed that the ministry has already drafted the impact statement to see how the law will affect stakeholders.

“The regulation has been drafted and will be taken to parliament which will consider it after which we can chart a way forward,” said Mr Ojepat.

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The development is likely to rub the farmers the wrong way. They have been categorical that failure to rein in on the middlemen is bad for the market. They also want packaging of the commodity to be done at the production fields.