Mombasa,KENYA:Tea export trade contributed to more that 125 million shillings in 2016 only an amount economists say is more than any other country in Africa accrued from the the sale of the same product.
Addressing business export shareholders at the Royal Castle Hotel in Mombasa on Friday Edward Mudibo, the managing director of the East African Tea Trade Association said for many years the industry has been contributing over one hundred billion foreign currency from the export industry.
Mudibo added that Kenya has been a major exporter of tea compared to other African countries most of which is exported to the United Kingdom.
The official said that 95 per cent of the tea produced is exported to foreign countries while only 5 per cent is consumed locally and further stated that no revenue is charged on exported tea.
Mudibo noted that out of the 5 percent that is consumed locally a revenue of 16 per cent is charged as part of the country’s revenue.
“The export trade has been earning the country billions of shillings Kenya being a major exporter of the product compared to other African countries.” He said.
He said that the highest consumers of Kenyan tea include Pakistan Egypt United Arab Emirates United kingdom Afghanistan and Sudan accounting for 77 per cent only of the tea produced in Kenya while the rest of the countries in the world account for the remaining 23 percent.
On the other hand, Peter Biwott the newly appointed chief executive officer of the Export Promotion Council said the EPC is re-orienting its strategic focus to strengthen its working relationship with various export stakeholders both in the public and private sector.
He observed that the council is partnering with county governments to form a Regional County Economic Bloc that will assist in strengthening the economy of the nation adding that their role as a council is to develop and promote export trade, identifying bottlenecks that affect exports and formulating ways of alleviating future discrepancies associated with the trade.
“Our role as a council is to develop and promote exports, identifying bottlenecks affecting our exports and come up with ways of alleviating future discrepancies.” He added.
Biwott noted that the council signed a memorandum of understanding with the Coast Development Authority CDA on Thursday June 2017 whose significance will among other things focus on developing the necessary efforts for the promotion of trade links through exchange of information, conducting market research implementation of trade promotion activities and training programmes.
According to the economic complexity index ECI Kenya is ranked 107th largest export economy in the world and the 95th most complex economy.
In 2015, Kenya exported $5.25Billion and imported $17.6Billion; resulting in a negative trade balance of $12.3Billion while in the same year the Gross domestic Product was $63.4Billion
