Thousands of mango farmers in Tana River county expect dividends from the Hola mango processing plant. The project, which is funded by the Coast Development Authority, has helped farmers do away with brokers and middlemen who used to exploit them. Currently, the farmers sell their mangoes directly to the Hola Integrated Fruit Processing Plant.
Coast Development Authority constructed the fruit processing plant at a cost of Sh190 million at Boji area near Hola, which has a capacity of crushing 1.5 tons of mangoes per hour. CDA managing director Dr Mohamed Keinan said the plant will support mango farmers from Tana River, Garissa, Lamu, and Kilifi counties. He said Tana River produces 223,360 tons of mangoes each year which used to be bought at 50 cents per piece, but with the new plant, they will benefit and sell at a fair price.
Further, he said the farmers used to incur post-harvest losses ranging from 20 to 40 per cent due to improper treatment and handling from harvesting to the time the mangoes reached the consumer or factory, however, this has now been addressed through the plant.
“CDA will help farmers to add value to their products using modern processing and packaging machinery besides processing the mangoes closer to the farmers,” he said.
Source: the-star.co.ke