Firm boosts Kenya links with China through trade fairs

After two years as an entrepreneur dealing in consumer goods, Mr James Kibathi decided to seek new source-markets in a bid to boost his profit margins.

Up to now, Dubai has been his sourcing point but the margins were not attractive.

For every shilling he invested he got a 50 cents in profits.

But the rising costs of doing business locally kept eating into Mr Kibathi’s profit margins.

This pushed him further east to China, in a bid to source affordable goods. Mr Kibathi is not alone, other entrepreneurs and business people have also turned to Far East Asia especially China.

According to the Economic Survey 2009, Asia dominated Kenya’s import in 2008 contributing to a significant change in the trade pattern. The value of imports from China increased from Sh45.7 billion to Sh 63.5 billion in 2008.

As Mr Kibathi turned to China, there was one big hurdle; he had never done business in a country which is much more complicated than Dubai, in terms of size and language barrier.

Through a newspaper advert, Mr Kibathi saw an opportunity to tour the far East for the China Import and Export fair in 2007, also known as the Canton Fair.

What he did not know was that the company advertising the fair, China Information and Culture Communication Kenya was formed as an initiative of the Chinese embassy to assist investors like him.

Mr Kibathi ranks among Kenyan businesspeople who have managed to work with ease in China as a result of the assistance of the company.

He was in the first group of 34 individuals who the company led to China in October 2007. 

Since then, Mr Kibathi has visited the China fair three times and he says his last visit eight months ago, the group had more than doubled.

However the growing demand for the service has forced the company to change their strategy. Initially the company targeted high end businesspeople for the fair.

Ideally they would network with over 350,000 other entrepreneurs who attended the fair and over 15,000 exhibitors for a fee of Sh135,000.

“Many small to medium entrepreneurs visited the embassy asking for referrals to companies they can trade with and logistic issues. We realised this market has more specific needs,” said Gao Wei managing director China Information and Culture Communication Kenya.