Local farmers are set to start supplying potatoes to the American fast-food restaurant KFC.

This is after the farmers started planting the Memphis potato variety.


Simon Chelugui, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Co-operatives & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, stated that the action was taken due to approvals from the Ministry of Agriculture.

And the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), during the Manufacturing SMEs Convention hosted by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) on Thursday.

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According to Chelugui, the government's bottom-up economic approach calls for gathering the nation's farmers for market connections.

“We had talks with KFC last year where they source their potatoes, they gave us the specific seed quality they want and we were able to import it, farmers have started planting and we expect that in the near future, all potatoes used in KFC and all the food chains in the country will be sourced locally.”

“This will mean more money to farmers, it means saving the country’s dollars and also promotion of our industrialization of our SMEs,” the CS said.

The CS also mentioned that to encourage the modernization of farming, the government spent Kes300 million on the construction of cold storage facilities in Meru, Olakalou, and Kisii.

According to the Kenya Kwanza government's vision for economic change, the facilities are supposed to assist farmers in reducing post-harvest losses.

For instance, it is estimated that around 40% of post-harvest losses occur in Nyandarua County.

KFC Kenya declared in January 2022 that it had run out of chips, which drew harsh criticism from those involved in the potato value chain.

KFC responded by stating that it imports potatoes from Egypt since the latter adheres to criteria that raise the quality of the crop, in contrast to Kenyan farmers.

Several parties, including KFC, discussed ways for the food chain to cooperate with regional farmers through cooperatives or organised youth groups to acquire potatoes locally.

The parties concurred that local farmers should be connected to seed and high-quality potato production for markets other than KFC.