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: 22 April 2016; Hits: 5244

Duo arrested switching fertiliser bags

Police officers in Mombasa on Friday December 11 raided a warehouse in Mombasa, where they arrested two men who were found repackaging fertilizer into different bags.

During the morning raid at the Changamwe go-down, officers found the duo transferring the content from 3,000 bags with expiry dates of 2020 to those branded with expiry dates in 2024.

Further, the culprits were transferring the contents from bags branded Turbo, into those with the MEA Limited brand, although it was not immediately clear the reason for this brand change.

MEA’s 50Kg bag of DAP fertiliser retails at KSh3,000 while that of Turbo retails at between KSh2,800 and KS3,000.

Authorities

Changamwe OCPD Joseph Muthee said the culprits’ motive was to increase the shelf-life of their product by luring wholesale buyers into believing that it was good for use in eight years.

“The original expiry date was set for 2020, but it was being repackaged into bags indicating that it was fit for use until 2024,” said Muthee.

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: 22 April 2016; Hits: 8179

Sugar milling factory coming up in Narok

Narok County government has signed a deal with Ambeet Sugar Holdings for the construction of a Sh1.5b sugar milling company.

This mill will feed on sugarcane produced in the 700,000 acres of land in the county that are suitable for cultivation of the cash crop.

The deal comes after an investors conference held in December. The move is expected to entice more farmers from the area to get into sugarcane farming in in the wheat and barley production basket. Further, the mill would create 150 new direct jobs.

Successful event

The deal was part of Sh54.7b worth investments, spanning across Agriculture, Education, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Energy and Tourism, confirmed during the two-day conference.

Sh28.35billion of the total value of deals signed went to agricultural projects.

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: 21 April 2016; Hits: 10570

Central Kenya avocado farmers enjoying export opportunity

One thousand three hundred and fifty (1350) avocado farmers from the central Kenya, of whom 45 per cent are women, are enjoying stable income from supplying a natural oil production and export company, Olivado.

Olivado buys fruit directly from farmers, processes it to oils, at its Murang’a factory, and exports it to 30 countries.

The New Zealand founded company began a pilot project in a temporary facility near Nairobi in 2007, after avocado supplies in the Pacific Island went down.

Within six months of commencing its operations in Kenya, the company had identified more than 700 small holder farms, and had them certified organic by Swiss organic certifier, IMO.

The company can now produce 900MT of organic extra virgin avocado oil per year.

Varieties

The farmers, from whom Olivado sources its raw products, have been specializing in just two varieties since the fruit was introduced to the highlands in the 1970s by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), now the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO).

Hass, a warty, medium sized, roundish fruit that turns purple at full maturity.

It has a tough, pebbly skin, with an impressive shelf life. Fuerte, a Mexican-Guatemalan hybrid is a shiny-green, pear-shaped fruit that weighs 250g to 450 g and has high oil content.

It is approximated that four out of five of the trees in Kenya are Fuerte, which was in high demand in the late 1970s and early 1980s when most farmers were establishing their orchards.

But market trends now favour Hass, with horticultural companies like Olivado encouraging farmers to plant Hass or graft Hass scions onto Fuerte rootstocks.

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