Onion Traders in Meru County are counting losses following the heavy rainfall experienced in the County leading to rotting of the produce arriving at markets in the region. According to traders at Gakoromone market, the persistent heavy rainfall and impassable roads from farms have lately been a threat to their business. They said continuous rains usually soak the mature onions in farms causing them to rot easily while the bad roads delay the transportation of the same to areas accessible by vehicles. By the time the commodity gets to the market, some are already rotten while others have grown shoots. Paul Kabeabea, who is a trader at the market said they have to sort out the rotten onions and cut the grown shoots then dry them first before selling them to customers. ‘We have to pay for carts to transport the onions from the farms through the bad roads and again pay for vehicles that deliver the commodity to the market, making it more expensive,’ he said. Mr. Kabeabea added that onion traders are now incurring a lot of losses as they have to throw away the rotten onions and sell the rest at a cheap price to avoid more losses. ‘The grade one onions are selling at Sh120 per kilogram while grade two ones are going at Sh90 per kilo at wholesale prices down from Sh200 and Sh150 respectively,’ Kabeabea added. Lucy Karimi, another trader, said that it is challenging to dry up the onions since most of the time it’s rainy or chilly. She added that the delays in delivery due to bad conditions of the roads cause a shortage of the onions in the market thus not meeting the demands of customers satisfactorily. She also said that the persistent rains give no time to harvest the onions on farms which cause delay in delivery. Cynthia Miriti is a customer who called upon the government to consider and construct the routes from farms joining the main roads so that the commodity could reach the customers fast and in good condition.

Source: Kenya News Agency