Nairobi, April 19, 2018 (Reuters/NAN) Kenya earned 115.25 billion shillings ($1.15 billion) from exports of cut flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables last year, 11 per cent more than in the previous year, an industry association said on Thursday.
Okesegere Ojepat, the Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya (FPC Kenya), said in Nairobi that cut flowers accounted for 70 per cent of the earnings, with the rest coming from fresh fruits and vegetables.
He said the sector had shown resilience in the face of drought, a drawn-out presidential election and sluggish private sector credit which curbed Kenya’s economic expansion last year.
He added that “the fresh produce industry faced several challenges, including high costs of production and insufficient cooling facilities.”
Ojepat noted that fresh produce exports was key source of hard currency for the East African economy, along with tourism, cash sent home by Kenyans abroad and coffee and tea exports.
Farming is the biggest sector in Kenya’s economy, accounting for about 30 per cent of annual output and employing more than half of the population, especially in the rural areas.
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