Raise quality of goods for market entry, China urges

Kenyan enterprises eying the over 1 billion-people Chinese market should produce high quality goods and services to match products from other parts of the world, officials have said.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Wu Peng said his country offers an “endless” opportunities that Kenyan companies, farmers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can tap.

“For decades, the Chinese market has been dominated by western countries and I do believe that now is the time for Kenyan companies to also leverage on the Chinese immense market,” Mr Peng said.

Recently, Nairobi has been on a charm offensive in China in a move seeking to expand market for Kenyan farm produce.

However, Mr Peng noted that Kenyan farmers and traders need to ensure that their products meet the highest standards set by the Chinese authorities.

In April, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed a deal that allows Kenyan producers to export frozen avocados to China.

In 2017, Kenya’s imports from China hit the highest level at Sh390 billion before sliding to Sh370 billion in 2018, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) statistics showed.

However, KNBS data revealed that Kenya exported a paltry Sh11 billion to China in 2018 compared to Sh9 billion in 2017.

It showed that Chinese orders for Kenyans goods jumped 74.13 percent in the first six months of the year to Sh7.48 billion compared with Sh4.30 billion in the same period of 2018.

Coffee, specialty tea, cut flowers and avocados are some of the farm produce which continue to gain market access to China.