Fresh produce exporters suffer multiple hits from power outage

Exporters of fresh produce are reckoning with losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of shillings as a result of the erratic power supply caused by the blackout that hit the country on Friday night.

The Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya now says its members, who are a major source of Kenya's foreign exchange earnings, are unable to plan shipments out of the country because of the disruption caused by the blackout.

"It's a major blow for us as fresh produce exporters. We haven't quantified it yet but I can tell you it likely is in hundreds of millions. We do our largest lift of cargo out of the country on weekends and if you consider the mess we have had, it is really unfortunate," the consortium's chief executive officer, Okisegere Ojepat, told the Nation.

Kenya's horticulture earnings in 2022 are estimated at Sh152.3 billion, down from Sh158.0 billion in 2021. Horticulture is one of Kenya's main sources of hard currency.

Ojepat says players in the sector have been hit multiple times, from production on the farm to transportation to destination markets.

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“Farmers use fatigation to release a prescribed amount of fertilizer and water to their crop within given durations. Without power, that cannot happen so already yield will be affected. Transportation usually happens by day and packaging is done by night. So what happened yesterday is that workers turned up at night for work that was eventually not done because of power outage at night. Then we have cold chains which run on power and as it is, they cannot be used," says Ojepat.

The consortium is now calling on the government to urgently stabilise the power supply across the country.