Nairobi, Kenya
March 20, 2006
Sales
of traditional African leafy vegetables at supermarkets in
Nairobi have rocketed an astonishing 1100 per cent in the past
two years. Informal market sales have increased too, as
supermarkets sales have legitimized products long viewed as
‘backward’ by shoppers.
“This is a marvellous result,” said Emile Frison, Director
General of IPGRI, who is in
Curitiba, Brazil for a meeting of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD). Frison will be presenting results from a
consultation to inform the CBD’s initiative to make more use of
biodiversity for food and nutrition.
“IPGRI launched this project to market and promote African leafy
vegetables in 2003,” Frison explained, “but we never dared to
dream it would be so successful. It clearly demonstrates that
the world really needs to take more notice of agricultural
biodiversity in meeting the needs of poor and hungry people.”
Stephen Kimondo is a grower who has
built a thriving business, which employs several of his
neighbours, supplying supermarkets with high-quality traditional
leafy vegetables.
Growers around Nairobi, who took part in the project and were
trained to produce high-quality food for the supermarkets, have
seen their incomes rise up to twenty fold.
“We have monitored 300 farming families,“ said Patrick Maundu,
the project coordinator. “The produce they deliver has increased
from 31 to 400 tons a month, and demand is still far from being
met.”
Family Concern Inc, a Kenyan NGO, promoted traditional
vegetables – which people had abandoned because they were seen
as backward and difficult to prepare – by working with Uchumi
Supermarkets to give shoppers colourful recipe leaflets and
information about how traditional vegetables provide better
nutrition.
“Since Uchumi started selling traditional vegetables, the three
other leading supermarkets in Nairobi have joined in,” Maundu
explained.
Mary King’ori, a sales assistant at one of those supermarkets,
Tusker Mattress in Buruburu neighbourhood, says that “those in
this business are minting money”. Customers prefer the new
products too.
Lucy Wanjiru, a 27-year old shopper at Tusker Mattress likes the
fact that she can get traditional vegetables there now. “They
started stocking traditional leafy vegetables only about a year
ago,” she said. “Before that I used to buy my vegetables in the
outdoor market.” Wanjiru accepts that she has to pay a bit more.
“Prices are a few shillings more here, but I do not mind because
I am assured of quality.”
Mary Wangari, another Tusker sales assistant, has her own
measure of unmet demand for traditional leafy vegetables. “Often
I throw away bunches of kale or cabbage because they have been
on the shelves too long. But I never have to throw away the
leafy vegetables, because nothing is left of the stock by the
time we close in the evening.”
Maundu says that he is seeing “a ripple effect in other cities
and the informal markets. Shoppers see these things in the
supermarkets and that makes them desirable.” IPGRI and partners
are working with farmers to increase the quality of produce in
the street markets too.
“This just shows what can be achieved,” Frison said. “Working
together with farmers, nutritionists, marketers and others we
can help people rediscover the nutritional value of their
traditional diets. And the benefits flow to everyone involved.
It really is time that policy-makers started to take
agricultural biodiversity seriously as a source of good food,
higher incomes and better health.” |
