Corporate News
Trade ministers on the spot over export tax rules
Workers at an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) textile factory in Athi River. Firms on special schemes contend that the EAC integration process which was revived long after they had set up their investments has cut off their links to the niche markets that they had come into the region to pursue. Photo/FILE
Posted Tuesday, March 16 2010 at 00:00
Last week, Kenya’s EPZA officials cited examples of firms such as I VEE Aqua ltd — a sterile preparations manufacturer which had set up base in Athi River — which take advantage of the country’s strategic location, to be able to deliver products to the regional markets at affordable prices.
Sterile preparation
A sterile preparation is said to be one of the most expensive undertakings among pharmaceutical firms, a factor that prompted the company to set a local factory in the hope of cutting logistics costs involved in exporting from Europe in order to sell in a market where average incomes still fall below two dollars a day.
“We are now in a situation where goods manufactured locally are made to access the custom union at more expensive prices compared to goods from far off countries of the Comesa region,” said Kenya’s EPZ Authority’s (EPZA) spokesperson Jonathan Chifalu.
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