KENYA – Kenya is one of five countries supported by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to reduce post-harvest losses (PHL) in the horticulture sector.
This initiative, part of the COMESA-EAC Horticultural Accelerator (CEHA) program, aims to enhance production and distribution, improve access to quality seeds, provide training, establish standards and traceability, and strengthen post-harvest management to boost the value chain.
While overall post-harvest losses in Kenya’s agriculture sector are estimated to be between 20% and 30%, the horticulture sub-sector experiences losses of up to 60%, according to COMESA. The five-year program targets Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, aiming to reduce horticulture losses to 40% or lower.
COMESA Assistant Secretary General (Programmes), Mohamed Kadah, highlighted the program’s bottom-up structure, where national-level stakeholders, mainly from the private horticulture sector, identify strategic priorities.
“It facilitates the modernization of regional horticulture value chains across East Africa, leveraging the comparative advantage, infrastructure, and technology in each country,” Kadah said.
The program focuses on potatoes, avocados, and onions, with Kenya being the first country where COMESA has launched this initiative. The goal is to achieve a trade value of USD 25 million (Sh3.3 billion) for fruits and vegetables within the COMESA-EAC region by 2031. Estimates suggest that avocados, onions, and Irish potatoes could generate a combined USD 230 million (Sh29.9 billion) annually for about 450,000 smallholder farmers.
COMESA aims to increase global exports from USD 416 million (Sh54.1 billion) to $950 million (Sh123.5 billion) over the next seven years.
Apollo Owuor, CEHA regional coordinator at the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA), emphasized the need to address post-harvest losses through existing technologies in storage, transport, and other stages.
“We need to address elements of post-harvest losses through technologies that are there. Be it storage, transport, and other stages to ensure that we curb losses and gain more,” Owuor said.
Improving production and market access
The program also aims to bring onions and potatoes on board with traceability, a crucial market component. Owuor mentioned the significant market opportunities locally, regionally, and globally, but stressed the need to improve production.
“We have a huge opportunity to tap a bigger market locally, regionally and globally but we need to improve production for example potatoes by 20% annually, and onions production,” he said during the launch of the CEHA program in Nairobi.
According to Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), the country produces only 26% of the onions consumed in the market, with 74% imported mainly from Tanzania. The locally produced onions are also of low quality due to post-harvest losses, poor management, low-quality seeds, and diseases.
Enhancing avocado and potato Exports
Kenya exports 80% of its avocado produce to the global market, thanks to improved quality and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures.
The government aims to enhance traceability in Irish potatoes and plans to expand production to 26 counties from the current 13. This move is expected to help reduce imports, where 50% of potatoes in the processing sector are imported.
Deputy Director of Technical Advisory Services at AFA, Anthony Rutto, noted the efforts to improve seed quality, expand export markets, and linkages. “We are addressing conformity of these commodities, improving quality of seeds and expanding export markets and linkages,” Rutto said.
The government targets to grow agricultural exports to increase foreign exchange earnings and reduce the country’s import bill, according to Trade Principal Secretary Alfred K’Ombudo. Agricultural exports account for 35% of Kenya’s total exports, led by tea, coffee, avocados, and cut flowers.
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