A higher trade deficit, economists say, slows down the creation of new jobs for the youth as most earnings within Kenya are spent on buying goods from foreign factories, increasing production and jobs there.

Kenya has made penetration of value-added farm produce such as tea, coffee and fruits to China and India a priority under the ambitious Integrated National Exports Development and Promotion Strategy unveiled last July.

“The national export growth strategy is driven by the overriding national goal of closing the balance of trade deficit through export growth, factor productivity and stimulating overall factor employment and economic development,” says State-run Export Promotion Council in the strategic plan.

The ambitious exports growth strategy targets an average annual growth in exports of 25 percent between 2018 and 2022, culminating in a trade surplus.

“In that strategy, we are looking east because the market in China and India is huge,” said EPC chairman Jaswinder Bedi on phone. “Traditionally, our market has been Europe (which we) think we will not lose but we thought we needed market expansion to hit our target.”