Five Kenyan parliamentarians have called on the government to ban unprocessed macadamia exports to China, in a bid to protect local industry from 'unhealthy competition from foreign investors', newspaper the Nairobi Star reported.

Elias Mbau said the government was reluctant to introduce measures to promote production and instead supported an industry that only exported products in their raw form.

"Exportation of products in their raw form has been denying the country the opportunity to benefit from the products," Mbau was quoted as saying.

"For how long shall we export our products in the raw form yet the country has the capacity to process the products," added MP Muturi Mwangi.

Kenya Farm Nut CEO Peter Munga lamented the fact local investors had been overtaken by foreign investors before nuts matured, the story reported.

"The local investors had agreed not to buy the nuts before March when they start falling down. We did not think that foreign buyers would take advantage of the situation and move to the farms before us," he was quoted as saying.

Photo: www.gourmetnut.com

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