Macadamia nut farmers getting robbed
SATURDAY JUNE 9 2012
Casual workers load raw nuts into a container for export. Picture: File
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By CATHERINE RIUNGU
Kenya has sounded the alarm over the smuggling of its macadamia nuts to Tanzania and China, costing the country an estimated Ksh10 billion ($118 million) and thousands of jobs.
The loss is affecting the production of the nuts as farmers have to contend with theft of produce as unscrupulous dealers cash in on the high demand.
“A kilo of raw nuts is fetching about Ksh80 ($0.94 cents) at farm gate, and thieves are raiding farms at night, especially in Central Kenya. When shipped out of the country, the same quantity attracts Ksh500 ($5) a kilo, while the processed product fetches close to Ksh1,000 ($12) a kilo,” said James Arim, Horticultural Crops Development Authority (HCDA) general manager in charge of technical services.
Mr Arim has been leading a team comprised of authority officials and police to arrest culprits over the past two months.
Despite a move by the government to license brokers and control harvesting of macadamia nuts to monitor trade in the produce, unlicensed dealers have resorted to unorthodox practices to keep themselves in business, doing everything possible even moving the produce at night.
According to HCDA, the country is losing an estimated Ksh10 billion ($118 million) annually to counterfeiters who are hiding tonnes of nuts in illegal warehouses in Mombasa for the lucrative illicit trade.
The authority charges that several containers of unprocessed nuts are exported illegally through the port of Mombasa or carted on road to border points into Tanzania where they are processed and exported as Tanzanian produce, costing the country an additional loss of 3,000 jobs and discouraging development of a product that has potential to more than double earnings to Ksh20 billion ($236 million) annually.
The recently formulated Kenya Nuts Council now wants government bodies directly responsible for licensing, regulating and inspecting exports — notably the HCDA, Kenya Ports Authority and the Kenya Revenue Authority — to take responsibility, and has taken the institutions to court for negligence.
Last week, the institutions held a meeting in Nakuru, west of Nairobi, to deliberate on the possibility of a change in law to include impounding the illegal produce, deregistration of firms found engaging in the malpractice among a raft of other punitive measures.
“We are looking to impound products and deregister offending firms to send a strong message to smugglers that their days are numbered,” said a source who requested for anonymity, and intimated that the nuts council case could see heads rolling because dubious companies had been registered despite the rules stipulating the conditions under which a firm can be licensed as a nuts exporter.
A week ago, officials from HCDA which now controls production and trade in macadamia raided a warehouse in Mombasa holding 5,000 bags with a value of Ksh20 million ($236,114). The contraband is believed to belong to unlicensed Chinese traders for illegal export through Mombasa port, Lunga Lunga, Vanga and Bolo points on the border with Tanzania. It is suspected that there are about 7,500 metric tonnes of unprocessed nuts hidden in Mombasa warehouses waiting to be shipped out of the country, contrary to the law that prohibits trade in raw produce.