Potato Chips Market in Kenya

Potato Farming In Kenya

Potatoes are the second most important food crop after maize in Kenya. Its production has also increased during last few years. The production in 2004 was 1,084,412 tons, but in 2013 the production reached 2,500,000 tons. The yield of potatoes in Kenya rose up to 185,185.19 kg per hectare in 2013 from 61,769.91 kg per hectare in 2000.
The main potato production area are in the highlands of the Central, Eastern and Rift Valley regions and on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Mount Elgon in Western Kenya is also prominent production area.


Potato Chips Market In Kenya
In Kenya, potato is mostly cultivated by smallholders. According to the National Potato Council of Kenya, there are 800,000 potato growers in the country. For the estimated 158,000 hectares potato cultivated land, about 83% belongs to small holders who engage in 0.2 to 0.4 hectares, and the rest belongs to larger-scale farmers who engage in 2-10 hectares.
A survey conducted in the year 2009-2010 indicated that there are totally 24 brands of crisps available in Kenya. About 90% of crisps processors were small and medium enterprises. About 64% identified the main constraints as lack of suitable potatoes and due to poor quality, 43% indicated finance shortage to increase production volume, while about 4% as lack of proper equipment and market.


Potatoes Suitable for Processing
Potato crisps are a major snack food in Kenya. As the survey mentioned above indicated, the varieties suitable for processing into potato crisps are Dutch Robjin, Tigoni, Kenya Baraka and the clones 393371.58, 392657.8, 391691.96 and 393385.39 as they have desired physical characteristics with low levels of reducing sugars. Among them Dutch Robjin is currently used mostly, while the high yielding Variety Tigoni can produce equally good quality crisps. And the clones 391691.96 and 393385.39 were comparable to Dutch Robjin.

High Profit

The Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF) has organized a groups of 20 farmers to process potato crisps. They buy a bag of potatoes at Ksh 2,500 ($ 29.41) and cut cut, dry, fry and sell each packet of crisps at Ksh 20 ($ 0.24). Each bag of potatoes generates Ksh 6,600 ($ 77.65), a profit of Ksh 4,100 ($ 48). By using our potato chips production line, you can supply larger markets with high quality chips.


Potato Chips Making Machine from Us
Although we also provide automatic potato chips production line, the semi-automatic line is a good start for a beginner. The smallest capacity is 30kg/h, while 60kg/h is the most popular. The line involves potato washing and peeling, cutting, blanching, dewatering, frying, deoiling, flavoring and packing. If you need potato chips making equipment, please write to us.

Contact Email: potatochipsmachinery@gmail.com