Fair Value Distribution, Sustainable Consumption in the Coffee, Fruits, and Vegetable Sector in Kenya, and Uganda in support of Evidence-Based Advocacy

Overview

Fair Value Distribution study under Reclaim Sustainability! looking at four fruit and vegetable chains in Kenya: onions (Kajiado), tomatoes (Kirinyaga), bananas (Meru) and mangoes (Makueni). Fieldwork ran from October to November 2022 and covered small to large farmers, brokers, wholesalers, retailers and logistics providers. The study mapped how each chain is organised, costs and revenues per actor (per acre of produce), bottlenecks to equitable profits, value shares, gender roles and ongoing advocacy work. The aim was to inform evidence-based advocacy for fairer value and risk sharing.

Key findings

• Tomatoes: retailers take 31% of net value, brokers 26%, transporters 11% and wholesalers 10%. The farmer gets 11%, a net return of US$308 per acre.
• Onions: wholesalers take 35% of value, retailers 32%, farmers 14% and brokers 11%. In the text, the farmer earns about US$354 net for a 6-month season, against US$1,086 for a wholesaler's 2-3 days of work and US$988 for a retailer's one day.
• Bananas: wholesalers (including ripening and distribution companies) take 29%, retailers 24%, brokers 20% and farmers 16%. Farmer net revenue is US$1,982 per acre.
• Mangoes: brokers take 26% of value, retailers 24%, farmers 20%, wholesalers 14% and transporters 6%.
• Farmer prices vary by buyer. Tomatoes fetch KSh 60/kg from supermarkets, 44 from institutions, 43 direct to consumers, 31 from brokers and 20 from neighbours. Brokers are the main buyer for most farmers (85 of 102 tomato farmers and 44 of 44 onion farmers).
• Average landholding is under 3 acres and production is led by farmers aged 50-70. Chains are informal and run on spot trading. High input costs, climate effects, post-harvest losses and information asymmetry, with brokers and wholesalers acting as gatekeepers, limit farmer profits.
• Men control land, tools and marketing decisions. Women do most of the unpaid casual labour and have almost no say in onion and banana farm decisions. Only in mangoes do women report some control, for example 20% of decisions on farming activities.

In figures

Recommendations

• Develop private and public sector policies on fair value share, long-term trading relations, and risk mitigation and sharing, including models that build social goals into informal businesses.
• Strengthen extension services and access to timely, reliable market information, and use digital tools to improve farmer decision-making and supply chain efficiency.
• Lobby county governments and other actors to invest in post-harvest handling infrastructure to reduce food loss.
• Form or strengthen farmer federations or associations by supply chain and geography to raise farmers' collective bargaining power.
• Promote regenerative agriculture and sustainable land management to cut chemical input use and production costs, and train farmers and spray service providers in safe pesticide use.
• Develop gender-responsive programmes that give women and youth a fair return for their contribution and improve their working conditions.

Methodology

Descriptive mixed-methods survey using purposive sampling. 351 questionnaires were administered through ODK and 90 key informant interviews were held across four counties. Costs and revenues were analysed per acre of average yield for each actor in the chain.

Limitations

• Kenya's fruit and vegetable trade is informal and not transparent. Local statistics are scarce and recorded inconsistently, so the research is mainly qualitative and relies partly on outdated literature.
• Onion respondents in Kajiado were hard to reach: most large farmers live away from the farms and workers are migrants. Only 45 of the 100 targeted respondents were interviewed.