Market Volumes and Value

The profiling of the informal wholesale markets across the Kenya’s coastal region has revealed numerous opportunities for smallholder farmers to engage with buyers. The annual market size for assorted commodities across six major wholesale informal markets is USD 45,615,797 facilitated by 2,213 wholesalers. Statistics reveal that traders are operating at 62% of the market potential given the documented annual market capacity of USD 72,442,428. Irish potatoes, tomatoes, kales, bananas and cabbages are the most traded commodities although huge market deficits for all the commodities are still persistent.

Annual volumes and value of assorted commodities across main informal markets in the coastal region, Kenya.

Commodity Traded	Volume (MT)	Value (USD)	Market Gap (Mt)	Proportion sourced outside Coast Region
Banana	22,027	7,497,898	4 233	64%
Beans	2,423	1,722,110	5 845	50%
Cabbage	15,085	1,806,265	1 711	100%
Cassava	1,957	645,038	1 684	70%
Cowpea	182	116,808	234	100%
Dry maize	749	267,389	655	80%
Green grams	39	28,567	221	100%
Green maize	2,496	324,143	1 456	60%
Kales	22,690	7,558,853	9 482	100%
Mangoes	4,485	537,369	3 362	100%
Onion	8,104	5,220,838	3 846	60%
Oranges	5,595	638,891	4 441	0%
Potatoes	32,244	8,297,969	12 324	93%
Sweet potatoes	2,097	542,640	3 494	50%
Sweet pepper	2,350	933,514	1 413	50%
Tomatoes	24,681	8,862,432	15 003	62%
Water melon	252	26,663	133	50%

 

Price

Huge price variations are persistent during peak and off peak season within the informal markets especially for tomatoes, cassava, potatoes and onions.

This present an opportunity for scheduled production for smallholder farmers to coincide with off peak period that offer higher prices.

Table: price variation during peak and off peak season for assorted commodities across the informal markets in the coastal region of Kenya

Commodity	Price/kg (Kshs)
	Peak	Off Peak	% price change
Cassava	22	50	127%
Banana	15	25	67%
Beans	66	96	45%
Cabbage	50	70	40%
Cowpea	60	80	33%
Green grams	70	85	21%
Kales	40	60	50%
Mangoes	17	22	29%
Onions	54	100	85%
Potato	21	37.5	79%
Tomato	15	123	720%

 Source: Farm Concern International, FCI, 2016