NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 13 – Local farmers have started planting the memphis potato variety which will allow them to supply American fast-food restaurant chain, KFC.
Speaking during the Manufacturing SMEs Convention, hosted by Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Co-operatives & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Simon Chelugui said the move follows approvals from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service(KEPHIS).
Chelugui noted that the government is keen to aggregate farmers in the country for linkages to markets in line with the government’s bottom up economic model.
“After the talks with KFC last year on where they source their potatoes, they gave us the specific seed quality they want and we were able to import it, farmers have started planting and we expect that in the near future, all potatoes used in KFC and all the food chains in the country will be sourced locally.”
“This will mean more money to farmers, it means saving the country’s dollars and also promotion of our industrialization of our SMEs,” the CS said.
Further, the CS noted that the government has invested Sh300 million in building cold storage facilities in Meru, Olakalou and Kisii to support the industrialization of farming.
The facilities are expected to help farmers cut post-harvest losses in line with Kenya Kwanza government’s economic transformation agenda.
For instance, it is estimated that post-harvest losses in Nyandarua County stand at about 40 percent.
In January 2022, KFC Kenya announced that it had run out of chips and this elicited sharp criticism from stakeholders in the potato value chain.
KFC responded saying it imports potatoes from Egypt because the country observes set standards that improve the potato quality, something the Kenyan farmers do not.
This saw various stakeholders and KFC hold talks to find ways through which the food chain can work with local farmers through cooperatives or organised youth groups to buy potatoes locally.
The parties agreed to link local farmers with seed multiplication and high-quality potatoes production, not just for KFC but other diverse markets.
