Yellow Passion Project
About the Project
Yellow passion fruit is among the most commercially competitive fruits in Kenya, with strong demand from local and global markets. However, the productivity of small-scale farmers – who are the main growers – is relatively low and their product quality varies; in 2017-2018, the production of yellow passion fruit in Kenya was far below 8 tons per acre with major global producers like South Africa (18.9 ton per acre) and Australia (24 ton per acre).
Due to the low productivity, locally produced passion fruit is unable to compete commercially with imports; demand from the Kenyan fruit processing industry greatly exceeds the local production.
The supply situation for the fruit processing industry is exacerbated by the tendency of farmers to sell their produce to fresh markets, where higher prices per kilogram can be sometimes obtained but overall there is less demand leading to post-harvest losses and ultimately a lower income to the farmers.
In addition, since they rely on selling to local fresh markets, the smallholder farmers lack formal business relations with industry stakeholders, which limits their opportunities to substantially increase their productivity through the application of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
E4Impact is working with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) – the Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) arm, Kevian Kenya Limited, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Enterprise (JKUATES) in the Yellow Passion Project Phase 2 with the aim of improving the competitiveness of smallholder farmers through enhanced production and supply of sweet yellow passion fruit. Phase 1 of the project showed great promise and this second phase seeks to further up-scale the production of passion fruit in three counties: Kwale, Machakos, and Lamu. A platform has been created to act as a marketplace for information, farmers’ networks, collection and extension services, etc.
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