The Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba) plans to grow export earnings by expanding Kenya’s offerings and gaining new markets through e-commerce.
Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) chief executive officer Hosea Machuki said substantial growth cannot be achieved by only relying on traditional exports such as tea, avocado, cut flowers, fish and cement, which form the country’s main export basket.
Kenya can achieve its target of growing exports by 6.5 percent annually if the agriculture sector diversifies to include non-traditional food products, a producers association has said.
The Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba) plans to grow export earnings by expanding Kenya’s offerings and gaining new markets through e-commerce.
Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) chief executive officer Hosea Machuki said substantial growth cannot be achieved by only relying on traditional exports such as tea, avocado, cut flowers, fish and cement, which form the country’s main export basket.
“We need to increase our product offering to include non-traditional produces such as sweet potatoes, fresh coconut, scented flowers, bananas,” said Mr Machuki.
“We can also achieve this through diversifying our markets. We need to expand our market share into countries such as Australia, Russia and France.”
Central Bank of Kenya data shows that total exports in the ten months to October grew by 6.4 percent to Sh532.91 billion from Sh500.79 billion in the corresponding period last year.
The growth in earnings was attributed to better performance of the country’s traditional exports such as coffee, tea and petroleum products.
Coffee and tea receipts increased by 3.9 percent and 17.2 percent to Sh19.71 billion and 109.36 billion, respectively over the period.
Receipts from horticultural products, however dropped marginally by 0.2 percent to Sh95.61 billion compared to same period last year. They were mainly affected by flowers which were hit hard by lockdowns in some key markets.
In October, Keproba and fresh produce exporters launched a year-long marketing offensive targeting key markets including the United Kingdom, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Russia, China and the United States.
The associations said that joint marketing would enable Kenya to approach buyers as a single unit thereby enhancing their bargaining power in the targeted markets.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
