The Agriculture and Food Authority’s Horticultural Crops Directorate (AFA-HCD) has issued a stern warning to horticultural players following a sharp rise in produce poaching and side-selling within the multi-billion shilling beans and peas in pods export value chain.
In a regulatory notification corporate circular dispatched to industry lobby groups, including the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya (FPC Kenya) and the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK), AFA-HCD Director Christine Chesaro warned that these emerging malpractices are severely threatening produce traceability, food safety, and Kenya’s international market credibility.
The regulatory crackdown follows intensive field investigations conducted by the authority targeting contracted snow peas and sugar snaps farming clusters in Kinangop (Nyandarua County) and Timau (Meru County).
According to AFA-HCD, a multi-stakeholder consultative meeting held with exporters operating in the flashpoint regions on August 27, 2026, exposed deep structural issues fueling the black market. The probe identified predatory brokerage, delayed payments, weight variances, lack of transparency in produce accountability, and weak enforcement of legal contracts as the primary drivers tempting farmers into side-selling.
“These practices are contrary to Regulations 22 and 23 of the Crops (Horticultural Crops) Regulations, 2020, which strictly mandate produce traceability and contract farming,” stated Chesaro in the official directive.
The regulator further warned that the ongoing side-marketing puts Kenyan produce at high risk of non-compliance with the National Horticulture Code of Practice (KS1758) and prevailing European and international market entry requirements, which demand absolute field-to-fork accountability.
To arrest the situation before it triggers international export sanctions, the Directorate has called on FPC Kenya and FPEAK to immediately mobilize industry self-regulation mechanisms. The export associations have been tasked with sanitizing their memberships, rooting out rogue brokers, and strictly enforcing contractual obligations between aggregators and local farmers.
AFA-HCD has signaled that it will step up joint industry surveillance partnerships to enforce strict transparency frameworks and protect legitimate exporters from unfair competition.
