Abstract:
Study on production and marketing of palm wine (mnazi) and other coconut-based products was
conducted at the coastal region of Kenya between June 2002 and April 2003. Both stratified and areasampling
methods were employed using two questionnaires; one for the tappers and the other one for the
farmers. A total of 9,155 coconut tree farmers and 2,814 mnazi tappers from six geographical districts in
the Kenyan coastal province were interviewed. From the production results coconut, copra, “makuti”, “fagio”
and “madafu” were the main coconut based products. According to the study, there were 4.84 milion
coconut trees, out of which only 2% were tapped producing 4.95 million decalitres of mnazi per year. The
yearly copra production was 48,402 metric tones per year. Tappers own 35.5 % of the trees tapped while
farmers owned the remaining 64.5 %. The yearly income generated from the sale of mnazi wine was
Kshs.367.83 million ($471,579), while other coconut-based products generated Kshs.856.01 million ($1.10
million) per year. The average income per tapper per year was estimated at Kshs.63.80 thousand ($818),
while farmers earned Kshs.41.12 thousand ($527) per year. The study indicated the need for proper
government policy through the establishment of coconut boards so as to monitor production, processing and
marketing of the coconut-based products.
