Nairobi [Kenya], January 15: Kenya's horticulture export earnings declined in 2024 due to reduced shipments to key markets in Europe and Asia, a government official said Tuesday.
The East African nation earned 137 billion shillings (about 1.06 billion U.S. dollars) from horticulture exports in 2024, down from 1.21 billion dollars in 2023, said Kipronoh Ronoh Paul, principal secretary of the State Department for Agriculture in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
Speaking in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Ronoh said the drop was due to a stronger Kenyan shilling, which made exports more expensive and dampened demand. He also noted the challenges stemming from insecurity in the Red Sea that forced horticulture exporters to use alternative routes.
"The change of export routes not only lengthened transit times for those highly perishable products but also increased airfreight costs," Ronoh said.
Kenya's main horticulture exports include vegetables, fruits and cut flowers. While vegetables account for the largest shipment volume, flowers, primarily sold in Europe, generate the bulk of the revenue.
Despite steady growth in recent years, Ronoh said that the industry faced significant hurdles in 2024, such as climate change, high production costs, pests and diseases, market competition, and stringent regulatory requirements in export markets, which negatively impacted the performance.
Okisegere Ojepat, chief executive officer of the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya, called for market diversification to mitigate reliance on traditional destinations in Europe, where shifting standards have limited Kenya's export opportunities.
"We need to embark on market and product diversification to reduce overdependence on a narrow range of products and destinations," Ojepat said.
Source: Xinhua News Agency