Workers harvest pyrethrum at a farm in Molo, Nakuru. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Newly licensed investors will add over 2,000 tonnes of pyrethrum flowers to the current 300 tonnes.
- The Pyrethrum Directorate has licensed Kentegra and Africhem Botanical, which have already started building factories and developing pyrethrum nurseries.
- The third firm, Highchem East Africa, is in the process of obtaining a licence.
Kenya is targeting a six-fold increase in pyrethrum production
this year following the licensing of the first three private processors.
Head
of the Pyrethrum Directorate Andrew Osodo said the investors will add
over 2,000 tonnes of pyrethrum flowers to the current 300 tonnes. The
directorate has licensed Kentegra and Africhem Botanical, which have
already started building factories and developing pyrethrum nurseries.
The third firm, Highchem East Africa, is in the process of obtaining a licence.
Highchem
is one of the four companies that had applied for a licence to process
pyrethrum after the government invited private players to inject new
capital to revive the ailing sector.
“Our target is to increase the volume to over 2,000 tonnes of
flowers by the end of this year, with the licensing of three players we
are going to reach these volumes,” said Mr Osodo.
The regulator said the government was putting up demonstration farms where farmers can buy certified seeds.
This
is the government’s latest attempt to revive the industry that was
producing 20,000 tonnes annually in the early 1970s. Kenya was then the
leading producer of the crop in accounting for 70 per cent globally.
Most of the pyrethrum is meant for export with the local market consuming less than two per cent.
Recent
statistics from the directorate indicate the volumes of flowers
supplied to the Nakuru-based state processor dropped from 390 tonnes in
2014 to 290 tonnes last year with projections for 2017 expected to dip
further.
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