Nationmedia.com: Kenya's bloom under siege - as Europe looks elsewhere for its horticulture

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Kenya's bloom under siege-as Europe looks elsewhere for its horticulture products

In 2005, Netherlands took 68 per cent of Kenya’s horticultural products to the EU, the UK accounted for 18 per cent, Germany 6 per cent, France, Switzerland and the rest bought 3 per cent each. The main market for the vegetable exports are the UK (66 per cent), followed by Netherlands (14 per cent), France (11 per cent), Germany (2 per cent) and others at 3 per cent. The main markets for fruit exports are France (45 per cent), Netherlands (26 per cent), Dubai (12 per cent) and UK (8 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (3 per cent). To remain more competitive, Kenyan flower exporters will have to increase their efforts to export directly to the EU markets, in order to reach an import volume equal to or lower than the distribution capacity of the Netherlands of 55 per cent. “Kenyan flower exporters will have to focus more on direct exports and also expand the assortment in order to remain competitive in the future,” According to Mr Feldt from Feldt Consulting. To this end the country may well look toward Dubai, which has opened up a Sh5.8 billion, 36,000-kilometre free export zone. The Dubai Flower Centre is said to be capable of handling 180,000 tonnes of perishable goods annually.

“This will open up the horticulture industry to over 200 million people and the Middle East market worth $1.3 trillion and here we are talking of a region with little or no conditions and regulations such as tractability, quarantine issues, packaging recycling, human well fare,” says Mr Ibrahim Ali, marketing director at DLC. Total exports from Netherlands to the Middle East in 2004 was around Sh2 billion.