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AFRICA
’
S SILK ROAD
:
CHINA
AND INDIA’
S NEW ECONOMIC FRONTIER
marginalized by higher standards imposed by food importers on premium suppliers suppliers would need to bear the costs to provide the necessary training and oversight to a large number of small growers. Indeed, working with smallholder farmers is difficult for trading and processing companies. Quantities of products are small and heterogeneous in quality,
supply can be haphazard, and bulking-up of volume into a steady stream of product of constant quality is difficult to achieve. Other weaknesses of smallholder farmers are the lack of knowledge of modern markets, technologies,
and inputs,
and poor access to capital, which prevents them from upgrading their production. These factors constitute a serious constraint to supplying high-end modern supply chains. In fact, the share of smallholder farmers (and medium-scale growers) in Kenya has decreased over the past decade, although the absolute volume of smallholder-produced vegetables for export is approximately the same.
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