Kenya’s flower industry is looking at immediate losses running into millions of dollars though the true picture will only be known after two months.
From workers not able to get to the farms, increased security to keep looters at bay, reduced quantities delivered to the markets and flowers remaining on the farms, investors say the losses are enormous, especially in the worst affected areas of Eldoret, Mount Elgon, Kericho and Kitale.
A farmer in Elburgon, Peter Karuru, said his flower farm lost four days of production. “It will take us about two months to get back to normal operations, assuming the violence does not erupt again,” he said, adding that although the situation was slowly returning to normal, there was still fear in the air, creating uncertainty and affecting production.
Equator Flowers farm manager Nehemiah Kangogo said the farm would have shut down had the situation not changed. He said his workers were yet to report back to work, production was low while the farm has had to invest in increased security, especially for escorting trucks to Nakuru since, he says, the Nakuru-Eldoret road is still unsafe.
All the flower farms — Equator, Panacol, Maji Mazuri, Mt Elgon and Soloboit — are transporting flowers in convoys and under escort to Nakuru, complicating logistics and affecting work schedules.
Apart from smarting from the loss of a week of production the farms are grappling with picking and throwing away flowers that should have been taken to Europe.
On most of the farms around Naivasha, the country’s major flower growing hub, work continued as usual although here, like everywhere else, the high value perishable commodity is now being transported either in the dead of the night or at the crack of dawn, to reduce chances of attacks.
Kenya Flower Council chief executive Jane Ngige said that the industry has benefited from the community welfare groups programme established on every farm that is a member of the council. She said that it is through the groups that workers have been co-opted into working and living together as a community irrespective of their cultural background.
The community welfare programmes were initially set up for articulating workers’ concerns to the management and the agricultural workers union. They deal with matters relating to employee welfare, safety and sexual and other forms of discrimination at the workplace.
The flower farms are therefore bracing themselves for a possible reduction in production and even job losses if the situation does not improve.
Mrs Ngige said the council was working closely with the police to ensure that adequate security is accorded flower farms for repulsing invaders, clearing the roads and escorting trucks.
