Kenya’s exports to Dar drop 30pc in first half of the year
A truck crosses into Tanzania from Kenya at the Namanga border post. Kenya sold goods worth Sh12.2bn to the country in the six months to June 2015. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the country sold goods worth Sh12.2 billion to Tanzania in the six months to June, down from Sh17.7 billion in a similar period last year.
The loss is partly linked to industrialisation in Tanzania and the Dar and Kampala currencies making worse losses against the dollar compared to the Kenya shilling.
Kenyan companies have also been setting up plants in the neighbouring nation thereby reducing the flow of goods across the border.
Kenya’s exports to Tanzania dropped by 30 per cent in the first half of the year.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the country sold goods worth Sh12.2 billion to Tanzania in the six months to June, down from Sh17.7 billion in a similar period last year.
The loss is partly linked to industrialisation in Tanzania and the Dar and Kampala currencies making worse losses against the dollar compared to the Kenya shilling.
“Tanzania has been investing in industries and it was obvious that our goods would not be going there in perpetuity,” said Joseph Kosure, a consultant in the external trade section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kenyan companies have also been setting up plants in the neighbouring nation thereby reducing the flow of goods across the border.
Some of the companies which have set up shop in Tanzania include listed cement maker ARM.
Data from the Export Promotion Council shows that the balance of trade between the two countries has been deteriorating due to an increase of Kenya’s imports from Tanzania.
Last year Kenya imported goods worth Sh18.3 billion from Tanzania, an increase from the previous year’s Sh11.6 billion, thereby narrowing the positive balance of trade to Sh24.3 billion from Sh28.8 billion.
Some of the goods that Kenya sells to Tanzania include medicines, soap, polish, sweets and snacks (sugar confectionery) and construction materials.
Mr Kosure said that Nakumatt’s opening of operations in Tanzania could also have affected the volume of goods imported from Kenya.
He said it was easier and cheaper for the retailer to import stocks through Tanzanian ports than Kenya.
Tanzania has previously been accused of putting non-trade barriers on Kenyans including delay of work permits. Kenyan companies operating in the country have also complained of being treated harshly by unfriendly authorities and slow licensing.
Earlier this year the two countries were involved in a trade row following a ban on Kenyan tour vans from accessing Tanzanian parks. Kenya reciprocated by barring Dar buses from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have tellingly formed a partnership outside the East African Community monikered the Coalition of the Willing (CoW).
Kenya cannot however afford to lose the Tanzanian market which is its second largest export market after Uganda.
But Kenya’s trade with Uganda has come under sharp focus following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s signing of a controversial sugar import agreement during his recent visit to Kampala.
