Voted the super fruit of 2013, the pitaya— otherwise known as dragon fruit— has only in the last five years begun to gain traction with Kenyan farmers. Given that a kilogram of the fruit currently sells locally for Sh890, and was at Sh2000 pre-Covid-19, the scaly, bright red, purple or yellow-skinned tropical fruit has been abuzz about farming circles, minting its early adopters some ripe returns.To get more news aboutDragon Fruit Protection Insect Net Bag Acting, you can visit dtwiremesh.com official website.

Back in 2015 when Dr. Freddie Acosta, a lecturer at Strathmore University first imported in dragon fruit seeds into the country he found few takers. Now he’s just finalised an order of 1200 cuttings for a farmer setting up a 25-acre pitaya farm at Makuyu.

"The fruit is in high demand especially among Asian nationals in the country; I have orders for a weekly supply of two tons from a Chinese restaurant in Nairobi,” he says.

Pitayas usually begin to flower in November and fruit in 45 days. This usually sets up for improved market supply and reduced prices over January/February when most supermarkets and grocery outlets import the fruits from South Africa. Prices hit their peak over the July to November months right before the next harvesting cycle begins.

For Waweru Murimi, a farmer at Malaa along Kangundo road, his sojourn into dragon fruit farming started out on an inauspicious note after he lost Sh8,000 in 2015 on a would-be purchase of the fruit’s seedlings. Having read up on its status as a superfruit and myriad health benefits (it is rich in fibre, calcium and 100 grams of dragon fruit has approximately 50 percent of required daily vitamin C intake, it helps lower cholesterol, the fruit's vitamin B-3 content is thought to enhance the skin’s smoothness and appearance while also being eaten by diabetes patients to help regulate blood sugar levels) he resolved to import its cuttings from Dragon Fruit South-Africa Community Program head Max van Heerden.
In December 2016 he got his first 80 cuttings which he has used to propagate to his current 2000 vines which fit into one-quarter of an acre. A mixed farmer growing a variety of fruit trees; apples, papayas and mangoes he attests that pitayas are the easiest to tend to plants he has ever grown—they need no spraying and being an exotic cactus species, consume very little water. "Once you have bought the cuttings and made a stand, there is little spend in terms of production costs other than occasional manuring and pruning,” he explains.

He is now on his second fruiting season which begins in November/ December when the flowering begins and lasts five months. Having harvested 200 fruits on his first go, he expects 500-1000 fruits this season.

The plants peak production is at the third year of harvest reaching 32 to 100 fruits per plant. Most of Muremi’s fruits weigh between 600 grams and 1.2 kilograms. The fruits are mainly distinguished by their colour and taste with the red and purple-fleshed varieties being sweeter than the sour-sweet white-fleshed type.

"The returns from dragon fruit have been good; my currently just flowering fruits have bookings as far out as Uganda but my impetus to start growing pitayas was not so much what I could earn but my own domestic consumption: If someone is willing to part with Ksh1000 for two of my fruits, I too should get to enjoy the tremendous benefits to be found in its consumption,” he opines.

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