• The Kenyan government has deported eight macadamia cartels alleged to have been exploiting farmers in the country.
• CS Simon Chelugui said that the move would help macadamia farmers get better prices for their produce.
• He claimed that the cartels were acting as middlemen, buying the nuts at lower prices from the farmers and preventing them from getting better market prices.
The Kenyan government has deported eight macadamia cartels alleged to have been exploiting farmers in the country.
CS Simon Chelugui. Photo: Twitter
Cooperatives Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui said on Wednesday in Gichugu, Kirinyaga County, that the move would help macadamia farmers get better prices for their produce.
He claimed that the cartels were acting as middlemen, buying the nuts at lower prices from the farmers and preventing them from getting better market prices.
“We have had foreigners who have been traversing the country and buying macadamia including the unripe ones from our farmers. That is why when our farmers fail to get a market for their produce, they sell them at throwaway prices,” he said.
“Those eight to nine people, we chased them away last week…they have all been deported.”
CS Chelugui expressed the Kenya Kwanza administration’s commitment to ensuring brokers and cartels are eliminated from the market so as to cushion farmers from exploitation.
He says through the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi, the government woul lay out structures to empower farmers and safeguard the market.
“We want to recognise the macadamia and I think the Agriculture Minister will be making some pronouncements on how we want to restore the prices of macadamia to where we were before,” he stated.
“The Ksh. 250 per kilo is a complete shame. We allowed this crop to be taken over by cartels who ended up now been abusing farmers. The people have been eliminated and we are coming up with a new and reorganised way of pricing and marketing macadamia.”
