Over the past week, while smallholder Kenyan farmers were still harvesting the country’s second largest crop, potatoes, fastfood giant, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), told customers at its outlets to either choose a second bun, coleslaw, extra chicken or a local maize-based staple, ugali, to go with their signature fried chicken.
Curious customers demanded an explanation for the swap and KFC’s regional boss, Jacques Theunissen, said “It has to do with delays in shipping lines due to the Covid situation,” outlining the logistics of bringing in pre-cut frozen potatoes “with total traceability” from Egypt to Kenya where farmers are dealing with a spud glut.”
The American food giant in its defence stated that potential local suppliers had not gone through KFC’s quality assurance process that makes sure “our food is safe for consumption by our customers.”
You must be wondering if the potatoes grown in Egypt are different from those grown in Kenya.
Nigerian singer TuBaba said in one of his songs that “If I say potato and you say poraro (mimicking the American accent) na the same potato.”
So what really is the big deal about Egypt grown potatoes that makes them better than Kenya grown ones?
Until the situation arose, no one imagined that anyone would import potatoes into Kenya, considering the magnitude of local production.
How wrong they were!
Kenyans did not handle the issue lightly and took KFC to the ‘fries’, over what they termed abandonment of local farmers who produce potatoes.
Using a hashtag, #BoycottKFC, Kenyans online are urging others to boycott the brand.
It is gobsmacking that in a country where small-scale potato farmers annually report huge post-harvest loss and often have to sell their produce cheaply, such a big purchaser does not find their potatoes worthy to grace the plates of the people of the country, but would rather import potatoes from elsewhere.
Potatoes are estimated to contribute more than Ksh50 billion to the Kenyan economy.
Situations such as that being witnessed in Kenya, call to question the kinds of agreements governments sign with multinational companies coming to do business in their countries and also expose how governments let their people down to the advantage of foreign interests.
Otherwise, how can KFC which has operated in Kenya for about 11 years now not have been able to put in place measures that enable it give back to the local economy by patronising locals? It is curious that after 11 years of operating in the country, KFC has yet to find suitable local suppliers. Has the company been searching at all? How much willingness has it demonstrated to partner local farmers and processors or is the company simply not willing to patronise them?
While it is true that issues of standard, quality assurance and traceability are big deals for such big corporations, it is not rocket science to make these standards known to local partners, walk them through the process and patronise those who can meet up.
Rival companies, though also foreign, have taken advantage of the situation, sending out messages to inform Kenyans of availability of chips which are, of course, locally sourced.
It is probably in response to this and sustained online protests that KFC has changed its earlier stance and is now willing to patronise local farmers who according to the National Potato Council, do not mind meeting their set standards.
This is what they should have done 11 years ago but it is not too late to correct the mistake.
Back home in Nigeria, after operating in the country for 12 years, Africa’s largest retailer, Shoprite announced an initiative to stock locally manufactured products in 2017, citing a need to strengthen the existing relationships with producers, identify gaps, and harness new opportunities in line with improving the Economic stability of the country, alongside creating the chance for local producers to showcase products and goods manufactured in Nigeria for export. It said at the time that 80 per cent of the goods sold in its supermarkets were locally sourced.
Laudable as this may seem, local manufacturers and suppliers have tales of woes about the frustrating hurdles they must cross to get their products on the shelves of multinational chain stores in particular. Of course, many small operators are unable to meet the set conditions and so the shops are still filled with imported goods for which there are local substitutes.
This is in spite the forex ban placed by the Central Bank on 41 items.
Food import has continued to take a large chunk of the country’s foreign exchange despite concerted campaigns about the need to patronise locally made goods.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that between 2020 and 2021, the value of imported agricultural products went up by 140.47 per cent. In the first quarter of 2021, it rose by 18.37 per cent, compared to the last quarter of 2020.
Nigeria spent more importing agricultural products from outside the country, valued at N630.2 billion and only managed to export a meagre N127.2 billion in agricultural products.
Of the total agricultural import value, Nigeria spent N258.3 billion on wheat importation in the first three months of 2021, representing 3.8 per cent of the total import share for the period.
In November 2021, the Central Bank had admitted that importation of some agricultural products, especially grains partly accounted for escalation of the country’s foreign exchange woes.
Trade deficit as being experienced with food import generally puts pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange as little is earned with fewer export activities. The implication is that the country has to look for other ways of sourcing forex to meet import obligations.
This presents an opportunity for Nigeria to also begin to question the source of input of foreign companies operating here.
Big players in the food value chain cannot continue to deny farmers decent earnings from their home market over issues of standards which can be addressed.
They must begin to consider options such as backward integration to substitute importation. Doing this will not only control their value chain in a more efficient manner but also bring about cost control in the distribution process.
Thankfully, Nigeria has a backward integration policy conceptualised to deepen the economy and achieve robust growth which can be enforced to avoid the kind of potato wahala being experienced in Kenya.
Additionally, big companies can also adopt the outgrowers scheme through which they can provide agricultural inputs and train local farmers on best practices and then buy the produce at the end of the season, following an already established agreement.
