Farmers in Tana River County have been urged to utilize the multi-million Galole Integrated Fruit Processing Factory set up by the Coast Development Authority (CDA). Principal Secretary (PS) State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) and Regional Development Idris Salim Dokota has urged local growers to embrace the factory as a lucrative source of revenue for their produce.
Dokota urged local farmers to wait for mangoes to grow to maturity and sell to CDA’s fruit processing plant, instead of brokers who have infiltrated the market, offering instant cash and exposing them to huge losses. He said farmers must avoid middlemen if they are to reap big gains from their produce saying oftentimes brokers were benefiting at the expense of the farmers.
He urged the farmers to add value to their products so as to fetch higher prices adding that they should maintain good quality products because quality is vital in local and international markets.
Source: kenyanews.go.ke