Farmers incur losses as mango buyers avoid restive Kerio Valley

In the troubled Kerio Valley, mangoes have been the lifeline. When livestock are stolen by roaming bandits, the fruit remains the only option.

But this year, the fruit-rich Kerio Valley is facing a double tragedy.

The guns are not completely silent in some areas and the fragrant scents from stunning mango farms have been replaced by eyesores with foul smells of rotting fruits scattered in several places in the Kerio Valley.

Farmers are counting huge losses as middlemen flee several areas of the banditry-prone region while the available ones are buying lesser and lesser quantities of mangoes, leaving producers with no other alternative but to allow the sweet fruits to ripen, fall and rot.

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Farmers in the Kerio Valley say poor road infrastructure, insecurity in some parts of the volatile region and declining markets in the East African region have conspired to crash fortunes in the lucrative mango business this season.

The mango harvesting season, starting around September to March has been characterised by boon and high income across counties such as Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and sections of Baringo.

According to farmers, the Elgeyo Marakwet section of the Kerio Valley is worst hit by a mango glut, the first one in the history of production.

Desperate farmers said they were selling a net at an average of Sh250 and a crate of mangoes at Sh500 at the farms.

Kennedy Agogo, a mango farmer, said middlemen who used to buy from him at Sh1,000 per crate are rarely buying his fruits.

“My mangoes are rotting on the farm. Last year, I sold a crate at Sh1,000 but this year, the buyers have vanished,” said Agogo.

The frustrated farmer said the middlemen have been buying from him and several other farmers in Kerio Valley to sell in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

“The middlemen have told us that there is no market in East Africa because there are enough mangoes in the markets. They have told us that they are now selling to the local markets in our Kenyan towns which are flooded with mangoes from other producing counties,” the devastated farmer said.

According to Agogo, poor road networks in the valley and insecurity along some routes have frustrated efforts by farmers to seek an alternative market in Northern Kenya.

“Delays in construction of roads leading to the Kerio Valley including Tot-Chesoi, Biretwo-Arror-Tot-Marich Pass and Kolowa-Tot-Marich Pass have frustrated transporters who have shifted to other mango-producing areas. The 2023-2024 mango season was the best. Farmers reaped from the fruit. They are counting huge losses this year,” Agogo said.

Alex Loseikwang from Kaben location in the Kerio Valley said he has so far sold 30 nets of mangoes compared to 500 during the last season.

“My mango farm is now an eyesore. Rotten mangoes are all over the farm. They fall and rot. I wish we had a storage facility so that we sell when there is demand,” Loseikwang told The Satuday Standard.

He said middlemen who come to the farm buy very few mangoes, and at just Sh3 for an apple mango.

“An apple mango was selling at Sh15 in the last season. This season, it is painful that no one wants to buy them yet it’s an export variety,” the farmer said.

President William Ruto had promised in January, during a church service in Tot, that the government had set aside Sh100 million to expand a Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) mango processing plant in the area to enhance its capacity.

Elgeyo Marakwet County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture Edwin Kibor yesterday said that the glut was as a result of delayed flowering of mango trees following heavy rains that pounded the region in April and May last year.