PREMIUM From ‘white gold’ to ruins: Why Kenya’s pyrethrum industry collapsed Once a global leader, Kenya now struggles to persuade farmers to return to pyrethrum production. News Just now

In the 90S, the country produced around 70 per cent of the global market, bringing in an average of Sh10 billion annually in foreign exchange, with the then Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK), a company established in the 1930s, running the show.1 billion to the tea sector for mechanisation of Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA)-managed factories, the pyrethrum sector has for decades been abandoned,” Mr Joseph Mainek, a former director of the defunct Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK), said.

Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Processors have been forced in the past to take the dry flowers to the United States, China and Madagascar, yet the Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) has a refinery that is lying idle, with a capacity to process 100,000 metric tonnes of the produce.