The Government will now be able to conform to global quality standards and food safety specifications following the recent public uproar on locally processed chips.
This is after Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) suffered a shortage of potatoes at its Kenya outlets following delays in delivery from its overseas suppliers, forcing it to offer customers alternative food items in place of French fries.
Principal Secretary-State Department of Trade, Johnson Weru, held a consultative meeting with KFC to address issues on how they can locally have processed chips that conform to the company’s global quality standards and food safety specification.
“The government is fully committed to creating a conducive business environment by assisting and protecting foreign investors while at the same time looking out for Kenyan interests, in this case, job creation, market for local produce and value addition of agricultural products,” he said
Chief Executive Officer KFC of the local franchise Jaques Theunssen took the opportunity to clarify that the ongoing potato shortage had nothing to do with the alleged poor quality of locally grown potatoes and everything to do with lack of suppliers of the semi cooked frozen chips used.
“He noted KFC sources over 80 per cent of their other supplies from local suppliers who easily conform to global standards, and expressed optimism that government will urgently assist them access the product locally to support the local economy and cut down on their shipping costs and time,” he said.
Weru promised to engage Treasury for funds to fast-track procurement of the plant noting any of the 3 available cold-storage units in Meru, Kisii and Nyandarua can be upgraded and equipped with the technology to supply local and regional consumers of the processed chips.
During Mwaki Kibaki’s reign the government had allocated 25-acre land parcel to Midlands Limited to diagnose the lack of storage and value addition and stable markert to curb the problem in potato and vegetable farming.
The company in Njabini was initiated to process and prevent wastage of farm produce, but its operations have dwindled since its directors were charged with grabbing the land where it stands.
In 2016, Former Transport minister Amos Kimunya and some company directors had two cases pending in court, where they were charged with allocating the company land belonging to the government.
The issues became apparent when the Nyandarua County Assembly Committee on Agriculture probed the allocation of the land in October 2016.
At the time, Junghae Wainaina told the committee that operations of the company had ground almost to a halt due to the legal challenges.
On the land, a factory was supposed to, among other things, store potatoes, sell raw potatoes, mill food products and convert animal waste feeds.
The company was established in 2003 in the aftermath of the collapse of Naivasha-based Pan African Vegetable Mills.
