Kenya is looking forward to exporting more agricultural produce to China and have since asked the Chinese government to provide more warehouses for Kenyan goods in China.
The Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba), a parastatal tasked with marketing Kenyan goods wrote to China requesting for warehousing facilities in a move to boost the penetration of fresh agricultural produce, tea and flowers to China.
Keproba lack of warehouses for Kenyan exports to China has been one of the challenges hurdling trade between the two countries.
“Kenya engaged China to provide warehousing facilities and once granted such facilities under developing country assistance programme,” Keproba chief executive Wilfred Marube told the Business Daily via email.
He added: “These facilities would strengthen the distribution of Kenyan fresh produce such as fruits, flowers and vegetables that have high perishability and require advantages of proximity for market circulation.”
Since the launch of the Integrated National Exports Development and Promotion Strategy in July 2018, Kenya has focused on the Chinese market in its plan to diversify exports.
Kenya and China signed a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Protocol in 2018 which encompasses elaborate agricultural health measures which are a prerequisite to gaining access into China’s market which is the second largest in the world.
The major Kenyan exports to China are tea, leather, sisal fibre, fish, and scrap metal.
In 2018, Kenyan exports to China were Ksh11.9 Billion ($109.9 Million) according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
