The establishment of virtual marketplaces enables global trade. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
Kenyan traders have gone virtual in selling tea and coffee via Chinese e-commerce platforms.
The China-Central & East Africa (Kenya) International Trade Digital Expo (CCPIT) platform will also serve as virtual marketplace for Kenyan traders to shop for any products from Chinese factories, largely driven by Covid-19 related challenges that discouraged physical travel to the populous and industrious nation.
The inaugural 10-day CCPIT forum that ended last week saw 5,929 Kenya traders (43 percent) of the 13,990 participants from Africa actively engage Chinese traders from 1,026 enterprises that exhibited their various products.
CCPIT also attracted 30 Africa-based enterprises who exhibited coffee, black tea, nuts among other agricultural products.
CCPIT vice president Zhang Shenfeng termed the establishment of virtual marketplaces as a transformational strategy that enables Chinese companies to trade with Kenya and Africa at large.
“China will have closer ties with the world economy and offer broader market opportunities to other countries,” he said.
Kenyan ambassador to China, Sarah Serem supported the new strategy saying enabling virtual direct Kenya-China trade engagements will see more exports flowing to China thereby reducing the trade imbalance.
China remains Kenya’s single largest source market, accounting for about a fifth of Kenya’s annual total imports’ bill of Sh1.6 trillion.
During the January-November 2019 period, China exported to Kenya goods worth Sh324.90 billion, or 20.3 percent of Sh1.6 trillion import bill, slightly reduced from Sh346.87 billion a year earlier on reduced imports of machinery into standard gauge railway (SGR).
During the exhibition, the platform pushed 16,498 pieces of data to the exhibitors where 18,532 person-time of online negotiations and 25,738 person-time of live streaming watching.
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