Chilli farming in Kenya has gained popularity due to high demand, with regions like Eastern, Coastal, Rift Valley, and parts of Central Kenya being suitable for cultivation.
Major varieties include bird’s eye, African bird’s eye, and Habanero chillies.
However, despite offering great returns for both small-scale and commercial farmers and the fact that it can grow almost everywhere in the country, many consider chilli just as an additional flavour to food.
The government is actively promoting chilli farming as a driver of economic growth, particularly in regions like Makueni County, and has taken steps to support farmers, including focusing on export markets and addressing challenges like pest management.
Speaking during a farmers’ exhibition in Kandara, Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) Director of Crops System, Dr. Lusike Wasilwa said that Kenya exploits only half of its potential to produce, with the United States of America, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, UK, Canada, France, UAE and Poland having great potential to buy Kenyan chilli.
A major market for fresh Kenyan chillies is Uganda, Tanzania, India and the UK, while Germany, and Italy buy dried chillies. Kenya started exporting chilli way back in 2006.
Dr Lusike noted that research on Chilli has been going on for the last 10 years, and although it has been a bit slow now, they have actually nine line varieties that they are hoping by next year will undergo the National Performance Trials.
“We are looking at these nine lines and working with a Gooseberry Delight who processes sweet and sour sauce,” she said, adding that consuming chilli is good for nutrition.”
Dr. Lusike noted that chilli peppers are a good source of vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin C, that helps one’s body resist infections and thus can be a healthy addition to one’s diet as an immune booster.”
The Crops Director noted that the ever-increasing demand for the growing market and also global love for spicy foods and the versatility of chilli in cooking create exciting opportunities for Kenyan farmers to join this vibrant agribusiness.
There are approximately 4,000 varieties of chili peppers in the world and just like in most countries, in Kenya most are imported and released by commercial companies such as Equator which is the leading grower and distributor for African Bird Eye Chillies and also SAKATA which is a commercial partner
Speaking at the KALRO farm, Angus Douglas Hamilton from SAKATA Seeds East Africa region said they are screening over 10 varieties of chillies at the KALRO farm.
SAKATA Seeds, a global company based in Japan which operates in over 170 countries, has been partnering with KALRO and using their farms to perform trials on various crops such as cabbages, butternuts, onions and also tomatoes.
“The chilli market is developing quite fast in East Africa, and there is a big demand for habanero, bird’s eye chilli, and serrano types, as well as the cayenne,” he said, adding that the Asian market is also quite enormous and should be a great opportunity for Kenya to take up some of the various varieties especially the serrano commercially.
Bird’s eye chillies, he confirmed, have been one of the most popular in Kenya for many years, and thus this year they will be launching two bird’s eye chilli varieties considering that China is investing heavily in Africa and one of the biggest products at the moment that they are buying is the chillies.
“A lot of farmers are going into producing the cayenne type and drying it on the farm and selling either powdered or flaked product,” he added, saying that people have also been talking about how chillies have medicinal qualities.
Kenya as well as across all the East African region, from Ethiopia, down to Tanzania, to Rwanda, Hamilton said, small farmers are planting chillies and competing for the export market.
“All markets, without exception, are looking for very hot chillies. The hotter the better, but there are different markets for the different varieties, and you will find the jalapenos tend to go into the restaurants and also into pickles; the cayenne types tend to be much more for drying and storage, while the serrano types are more in the Mexican cuisine, known for their medium- to medium-hot spice level.
Kenyan chillies and peppers: green production in 2023 was 10745.74 tonnes, while dry chillies were 2989.43 tonnes in 2023, with the most popular market outlets being processors (52%), and aggregators/brokers (41%).
By Wangari Ndirangu
