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Due to lack of adequate and constant supply of good quality chips, five star hotels and big supermarkets import frozen chips either from South Africa or Europe at high prices. In Kenyan supermarkets chips made by Njoro Canning were selling much faster than imported ones because quality was acceptable and prices lower. In Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda the prices of imported chips are higher than locally made chips by 632%, 198%, 228% and 301%, respectively. The experience of Njoro Canning shows that the region has potential to produce acceptable quality chips if potato varieties appropriate for chips making are available and the supply is reliable. This would save large amounts of hard currency for the region in the form of import substitution and the consumers would have access to acceptable quality chips at reasonable prices. The potential for regional chips trade, especially frozen chips, looks very promising because of the existence of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) whose polices favour inter-regional trade in goods and services, and all the study countries are party to one or both. Although regional chips trade is potentially lucrative, bottlenecks include limited access to processing varieties and processing machines, limited knowledge of processing techniques, high costs of electricity, lack of standards, insufficient and poor storage and transport facilities, poor road network infrastructure, inefficient utility service providers, lack of strong farmer associations, limited flow of information, and inadequate financial intermediaries. Moreover, loose linkages and partnerships between research, farmer organizations and stakeholders stand out as an important constraint. To realize the benefits of regional chips trade for smallholder potato farmers and other stakeholders, improved access to appropriate varieties for processing, wide-spread knowledge of processing techniques, access to processing machines, strong links and partnerships between research, NGOs, farmer organizations, potato producers, processors and traders and enabling regional polices are vital. Working very closely with COMESA and EAC is of paramount importance to have an enabling regional policy in place. V I
Acknowledgments The study team would like to extend its deepest gratitude to PRAPACE for its financial support and technical backstopping. ECAPAPA supported the study in Uganda, which is duly acknowledged. NARS of participating countries (EIAR-Ethiopia, KARI-Kenya, ISAR-Rwanda, ISABU- Burundi, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives of Tanzania) and IITA/Foodnet) are also highly acknowledged for their favorable administrative services and implementing the studies. We would also like to extend our gratitude to respondents for their cooperation in providing the information. This study was conducted by a team of scientists from each of the participating countries under the leadership of a socio-economist from EIAR-Ethiopia. During the survey a number of managers of hotels, and bars & restaurants and their staff, households, processors, traders and NGOs were contacted and visited. We sincerely thank them for their willingness to interact with us and share their ideas, opinions, fears, critics and experiences. The study was funded by USAID-EA through ASARECA, both of whom we sincerely thank. vii
Page 1 and 2: Markets for fresh and frozen potato
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents 1. Introduction .
Page 7: Abstract Potato is an important foo
Page 13 and 14: CIP • SOCIAL SCIENCES WORKING PAP
Page 55: CIP’s Mission The International P

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