Kenya: Reprieve for consumers as tomato prices drop
However, Tuta Absoluta, the deadly pest that has contributed greatly to decrease in supply after ravaging tomatoes in different parts of the country still persists.
In the capital Nairobi, a 64kg box of tomatoes at Wakulima, the biggest wholesale market in the city, was going for 77 U.S. dollars last month. Prices had also increased in Kisumu, where the box of tomatoes was being sold at 86 dollars and 80 dollars in Mombasa.
The sharp increase in wholesale costs had led to a jump in retail prices, with many vegetable stores in Nairobi selling a single tomato at 0.11 dollars. Many families in the East African nations had thus abandoned tomatoes due to the high prices.
However, it is now a reprieve as both wholesale and retail prices drop.
In the capital Nairobi, a 64kg box of tomatoes is now being sold at 68 dollars, a drop of 9 dollars from last month. The cost of the produce in other cities has also come down, with traders in Kisumu selling the box at 78 dollars and in Mombasa at 70 dollars.
“Prices are getting better,” Grace Mutuku, who runs a fresh produce store in Komarock on the east of Nairobi, said on Sunday. "The only problem is that the quality of tomatoes in the market has not improved. Those supplied still have spots, an indication of diseases, and they rot faster,” Mutuku said.
Mutuku now sells a bunch of three big tomatoes at 0.28 dollars and three small ones at 0.23 dollars. The trader had halved her tomato purchases when prices were too high because consumers were not buying.
The tomato is the third largest vegetable produced in Kenya. Last year, the country produced 494,037 tonnes of tomatoes valued at 160 million dollars from 22,865 hectares, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry notes Tuta Absoluta or leaf miner remains the biggest challenge to farmers, with the pest ravaging acres of crops.
The ministry, which has stepped up efforts to curb the pest that came into Kenya from Ethiopia, blames the fast spread to trade in infested tomato fruits.
source: coastweek.com