NAIROBI, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Green, white and red crates line up the modern cold storage facility located in Machakos, south of Nairobi, Kenya's capital. The crates host vegetables, tomatoes, and avocados, among other fresh produce, stored in the facility before they are released to both local and international markets.

"Farmers bring their produce here for storage at 20 shillings (0.19 U.S. dollars) per crate, per day as they seek for the market to avoid losses," Joseph Musau, the owner of the cold room, told Xinhua in a recent interview. He farms some of the products but he stores most of them for farmers at a fee before they take them to the market.

Those seeking to export their produce like avocados and mangoes, store them there before the agents collect to sell them in international markets that include Europe and Asia.

The cold storage facility is one among dozens that are coming up in the East African nation, particularly in areas where export crops are grown.

Export crops stored in the cold rooms to curb post-harvest losses include French beans, avocados, mangoes, pigeon peas, a variety of vegetables and herbs.

Ernest Muthomi, chief executive of Avocado Society of Kenya, observed that many Kenyan farmers growing crops for export have increasingly embraced the facilities and pack houses as demanded by the international market.

"For years, avocado exporters have faced many challenges due to lack of storage facilities. But a lot of farmers have embraced change and are now using cold storage services," he said.

For the Chinese market, Kenyan farmers are expected to freeze the fruit to -30 degrees Celsius after peeling off the skin. And the fruit should then be chilled further to -18 degrees Celsius while being exported to the Asian nation.

Without storage facilities, many Kenyan farmers have been unable to meet these export conditions thus failing to capture the Asian nation's market.

"To expand our fresh produce export market, we must embrace cold storage services," Beatrice Macharia of Growth Point, an agro-consultancy in Kajiado in southeast Kenya, said.

The horticulture sector is a major foreign exchange earner, raking in 1.4 billion dollars in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Horticulture Crops Directorate. The industry employs about 500,000 people and supports close to six million indirectly. Enditem

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