By MaryAnne Musilo

Kenya’s apple production had increased 660 per cent over three years, according to the FAO, as farmers have learned how to ‘fake’ the winter dormancy of apple trees to get three harvests a year, versus just one a year from  traditional growers in Europe, the US, and China..

The move to removing all the trees’ leaves in Kenya’s equatorial climate, where the weather never becomes cold enough to push trees to drop their leaves and move into dormsncy, is resetting and accelerating the trees’ fruiting cycles, creating a huge competitive advantage for African farmers..

Martin Wambugu, the farmer behind Kenya’s climate-adapted Wambugu apple variety, said in an interview with FarmBizAfrica that the secret is to “manually remove all leaves and sprouting shoots. Two to three weeks later, apply a lot of water to the plants—they automatically start flowering and fruiting@.

“By removing leaves, you disrupt the tree’s energy production and growth, encouraging it to allocate resources towards flower and fruit development instead,” he said.

As a result of these ‘fake winters’, Wambugu apples are now producing seversl harvests a year in Kenya’s temperate highlands, with yields starting just 8 to 10 months after planting. “If you feed your plants well, then the yield will be good,” said Martin. “With the right fertilizer and spraying of fungicides and pesticides, expect good results.”

The tripling of apple trees’ fruiting in the country is repositioning them as an earner. “In an acre, where one can plant 950 trees at a spacing of 1 by 3 metres, one can comfortably pocket around Sh800,000 to a million in the first season,” Martin said. 

This rises as the trees mature, and can be earned up to  three times a year with the new leaf removing, with apples such as the Wambugu apple tolerating black cotton, red, and loam soils, making it widely adaptable across Kenyan regions, with its only baseline being enough water access.

As a global advantage the move to triple-harvested trees is a game changer. China, the world’s largest apple producer, yields over 40 million tonnes a year, but from a single harvest grown in seasonal cycles. The United States and Poland, the second and third largest producers, follow the same pattern. No country in the top 20 has commercially scaled triple-season production – yet Kenyan farmers are now pioneering it on smallholder plots countrywide.

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With year-round harvests, Kenyan apples can reach regional and international markets during off-peak periods when prices are highest, something traditional producers cannot match. If scaled to 10,000 hectares with triple-yielding trees, Kenya could be producing over 100,000 tonnes a year, vaulting into the ranks of global exporters with the unique advantage of counter-seasonal supply.

Moreover, it’s a potential lead that hinges not on high-cost technologies, but on low-tech practices tailored to tropical realities.

With apples storing well and enjoying a long shelf life, the advantage is not as great as for short-lived products, but the volume potential is huge, turning a fruit of the north into a tropical economic engine.

The new triple apple farming “has a lot of financial benefits,” said Martin.

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