A food system analysis of Kenya’s mango, avocado and poultry sectors : Assessing opportunities to reduce food losses

Abstract

Kenya is considered one of the economic powerhouses of eastern Africa. The agri-food system contributes 34 percent of the total national GDP and 65 percent of all export related earnings. More than 80 percent of the Kenyan population is directly dependent on agriculture as a source of food and income.Due to inefficiencies in the supply chains, vast volumes of perishable, nutrition dense food products are lost before they reach the market or consumers.Post-harvest losses of over 40 percent are common in the case of perishable and nutrition dense agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables and fresh animal products.Reducing post-harvest losses enhances the efficiency of the food system, reduces waste, minimizes environmental footprint of agricultural production, and makes more food available, accessible and affordable for consumers.

Status of Avocado Production, Postharvest Handling and Utilization in Kenya

“…Mexico leads in global production of avocado followed by Peru while Kenya is the leading avocado producer in Africa but third in the world (Figure 1, FAOSTAT 2020). Kenya has continuously recorded increased production with actual production volumes in Kenya hitting an impressive volume of 318,000 MT per year in 2018 (Herman et al, 2021),…”

“…According to (Hategekimana, 2019) harvesting activities is done using secateurs or knives or sticks, fruits are then placed in on the ground, in gunny bags or in crates and transported to export companies using open small pickup trucks. Due to absence of refrigeration during the first mile transport approximately 20% of the fruits is lost (Herman et al, 2021) when the quality of fruits starts deteriorating, while 10% of the fruit is lost in subsequent chain movement of fruit that occurs during post packing transport and packaging steps. The more the distance the most the fruit quality is affected.…”

An overview of the Kenyan food system: outcomes, drivers and activities

“…It is estimated that 20% of cereals are lost prior to reaching the market, and this is a contributing factor to increasing dependency on food imports.Over the past two decades, the cereal import dependency ratio of Kenya has increased from 23.9% (over the period[2000][2001][2002] to 43.1% (over the period[2019][2020][2021] (World Bank, n.d.). These losses translate into approximately 4.5 million bags, and post-harvest losses are estimated at 12-20% of total national production(Snel et al, 2021). In Kenya, the fruit sector has grown (by 12% between 2005 and 2015) due to larger demand for fresh fruits and heathier drinks.Yet, only 8% of mango fruits grown are processed and about 40% of the fruit goes to waste.…”