The Ministry of Agriculture has banned macadamia harvesting with effect from November 2, 2024 until March 1, 2025, to curb the export of immature nuts.<\/p>\n
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Andrew Karanja said the decision was after consultations with industry stakeholders adding that the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) is tasked with enforcing strict compliance with this directive, including revoking licenses of violators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Authority will also increase inspections and surveillance to eliminate unscrupulous business dealers,\u201d said the CS.<\/p>\n
Dr. Karanja explained that the Kenyan macadamia industry is heavily export-oriented, with approximately 95% of its annual production shipped to international markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2019, farm gate prices for macadamia Nuts in Shell (NIS) peaked at an all-time high of Sh180 per kilogram. However, by early 2023, prices had dropped significantly, to Sh30- 40\/kg,\u201d said Dr. Karanja.<\/p>\n
To address this, the CS said that the Ministry, under Section 43 of the AFA Act, 2013, lifted the ban on raw macadamia exports providing a one-year export window effective from 3rd November 2023.<\/p>\n
The CS said that this remedial measure was aimed at stabilizing prices and helping farmers manage excess stock impacted by global market conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA rapid industry assessment shows that many local companies lack quality stocks for processing. It also highlighted the harvesting, processing and export of immature nuts has led to poor performance of the Kenyan macadamia in the global markets,\u201d said the CS.<\/p>\n
Karanja added that exporting processed macadamia nuts (kernels) is more beneficial to Kenya than exporting raw in-shell.<\/p>\n
He said that to facilitate the ban, dealers must submit their current stock for inspection, verification, and clearance by 15th November 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cA minimum guaranteed farm gate price of at least Sh100 per kilogram will be implemented,\u201d assured the CS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National and County Governments will continue working together to enforce the provisions of the Crops Act, 2013, and the Crops (Nuts and Oil Crops) Regulations, 2020,\u201d said Dr Karanja.<\/p>\n
The post Government bans macadamia harvesting until March 2025<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Government bans macadamia harvesting until March 2025<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Ministry of Agriculture has banned macadamia harvesting with effect from November 2, 2024 until March 1, 2025, to curb the export of immature nuts. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Andrew Karanja said the decision was after consultations with industry stakeholders adding that the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) is tasked with enforcing strict compliance with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}