Speaking at a Kenya-UK trade forum in London, Kenya’s High Commissioner to the UK Ambassador Manoah Esipisu said Kenya is committed to making sure the partnership bears fruit.
“We think we have done all the right things in Kenya to sustain a level of commitment to building what is necessary to foster growth to continue to build our infrastructure, to continue to work on our ICT, our tourism infrastructure and committing to work on value addition,” said Ambassador Esipisu.
Participants at the forum organised by a Bramex Logistics and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) discussed the various opportunities in the economic partnership.
Statistics indicate that Kenya’s exports to the UK stood at about Ksh.49.5 billion. Of these 43% comprised vegetables and 9 per cent was flowers. Despite the UK being Kenya’s 5th top export destination, after Uganda, Pakistan, USA and The Netherlands, a report by Oversees Development Institute (ODI) trade between the two nations remains relatively stagnant.
The Chief Executive Officer of KNCCI, Mombasa Chapter James Kitavi told participants that UK has been one of Kenya’s strongest trading partners as a country.
“We need to access a larger share of this market in terms of fresh produce and what that means is that it translates to earning of foreign exchange in this country and we need to ensure that we push many products or facilitate trade to happen between Kenya and UK so that we can increase the revenue earned in this particular relationship,” he said.
Mr. Kitavi added that there are various products that can now access the UK market duty free after Brexit.
The forum coincided with peaceful transitions in both Kenya and the UK.
Ambassador Manoah assured participants that Kenya’s new administration will continue with the drive towards actualising the economic partnership.
Mr. Robin George, a partner and associate director at Boston Consulting Group that works closely with the UK government in implementing specific trade projects, said the UK is an incredibly competitive market that wants quality and quality at the lowest price possible.
“We are seeing outside the big suppliers there aren’t many Kenyan supplies who can meet the scale and price requirements that this market requires,” he pointed out.
Mr. George went on to state that they looked at three specific product categories where there is the biggest opportunity.
"We looked at mixed vegetables which is your cut fresh and frozen vegetables. There is more that can be done in scaling that up. Avocado is an unexploited market. Kenyan avocado is excellent, but Kenya doesn’t grow the Hass variety that is of demand here.
"When we talk about value products be it nut mixes, be it avocado oil, be it nuts spread, this is a growing market as people become more health conscious, as people become more aware of these health benefits, there is a growing demand for these products," said George.
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