Earnings from horticulture recorded the biggest growth among Kenya’s main agricultural exports in the eight months to August, fresh data shows, cancelling out poor performance by tea.
An update by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that horticulture earnings jumped by a quarter to Sh87.8 billion ($795 million) from Sh70.3 billion ($636 million) in the first eight months of last year.
Demand for the products which include flowers, fruits, and cut vegetables has gone up in key destination markets, which have been reopening fully following 2020’s Covid-19 lockdowns.
Earnings from horticulture recorded the biggest growth among Kenya’s main agricultural exports in the eight months to August, fresh data shows, cancelling out poor performance by tea.
An update by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that horticulture earnings jumped by a quarter to Sh87.8 billion ($795 million) from Sh70.3 billion ($636 million) in the first eight months of last year.
Demand for the products which include flowers, fruits, and cut vegetables has gone up in key destination markets, which have been reopening fully following 2020’s Covid-19 lockdowns.
The higher agriculture earnings helped grow Kenya’s exports by 11.5 percent in the period, with higher earnings from manufactured goods—up 39 percent in the period—also serving as a major boost.
“Tea prices have also improved in recent auctions and we expect that to be sustained,” CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge said at a briefing following the monetary policy committee meeting on Wednesday.
Although tea prices are improving, earnings for the eight-month period reflected a drop of 5.8 percent to Sh88.5 billion ($801 million) compared to the corresponding period last year.
The CBK said that the lower comparative earnings this year are as a result of accelerated purchases in the second quarter of 2020, where tea importers bulked up on the produce on fears of supply problems due to Covid restrictions and lockdowns.
On the other hand, coffee exports have grown by 15.2 percent this year to Sh20.1 billion ($182 million), helped by higher global prices of the produce and lower supply from Brazil.
The South American state is a significant exporter of coffee, but has had problems this year with frost and currently drought, which has affected production of its major crops including sugar, soya, and coffee.
Although the higher horticulture and coffee earnings have helped Kenya’s exports to grow in the period, the balance of trade has tilted further in favour of imports, which went up by 22.9 percent in the January to August period.
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