Products will now find it easier to enter and compete in the international market following the accreditation of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) byDutch Accreditation Council (RVA), an internationally recognised standards accreditation body. The news was announced today during the official launch of ‘Zamukana Ubuziranenge’, a new program that will assist the local industry to reach the desired quality and safety performance; and build a strong quality and safety culture in Rwandan SMEs through creation of awareness. The programme, developed in conjunction with Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) will assist Small and Medium Enterprises to be conversant with quality requirements contained in standards, thus easing standards implementation in SMEs towards certification. The international accreditation of Hazard Analysis and RS 184 Critical Control Points (HACCP) and ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) certification schemes means that the European and worldwide market will trust the quality of products with the RSB mark of quality as the accreditation by RVA increases credibility of the services by RSB hence enabling the Made in Rwanda Food products with RSB mark of quality to be internationally recognized. Honourable Vincent Munyeshyaka, Minister of Trade and Industry presided over the event. He said: “We congratulate RSB upon this tremendous achievement as it unlocks Rwanda’s opportunities to confidently trade on global markets. The accreditation, launched standards and the Zamukana Ubuziranenge program give us a strong foundation to sustainably build industry’s capacity in standards compliance, which will then fast-track the trail to certification of products and services. We urge...

ARUSHA – Tanzania’s coffee production is expected to go down in the next harvesting season, due to prolonged drought in the key producing areas, the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has said. TCB acting director general, Primus Kimaryo, said total coffee output in 2016/2017 coffee year is at an average of 50,000 tonnes, “but this is drop to an average of only 43,000 tonnes during the 2017/2018 period.” Tanzania earned $135 million from coffee exports during the 2015/2016 farming season. The country’s key coffee producing areas are Arusha, Tanga, Morogoro, Mbeya, Ruvuma, Kigoma, Kagera, and Kilimanjaro. Source: The New Times

The World Bank’s latest Doing Business Report reveals improved rankings for many countries in the East African Community (EAC), such as Rwanda and Kenya, climbing up 15 and 12 places, respectively, from last year. This development has had a positive impact on the East African container trade market, which continued to see improvements in both imports and exports. Mads Skov-Hansen, Managing Director at Maersk Line Eastern Africa – a member of A.P. Moller-Maersk – says that the container trade growth experienced over the third quarter of 2017, however, has been limited by the political uncertainty that surrounded the recent elections in Eastern Africa’s economic hub, Kenya, which spilled over into other key countries served by the Northern Corridor, such as Uganda. Despite these political influences, the A.P. Moller-Maersk 2017 Third Quarter East Africa Trade Report reveals an improvement in aggregate trade levels over the last quarter, resulting in overall year-on-year growth of 3% for the region. “It’s always difficult to analyse a specific period during an election year. We typically see significant trends play out which may mean that the results captured are not actually a true indicator of real growth experienced,” says Skov-Hansen. IMPORT GROWTH DRIVEN BY CARS AND TEXTILES These trends are particularly relevant to note with regards to imports. “During an election year, imports tend to see a boost just before the election day, as people tend to stock up on basic commodities. There is then usually a drop in imports immediately after, as people hold back...

The value of Kenyan cut flowers fell in the 12 months to May even as Ethiopia raced up the ladder in new global markets. According to the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), Kenya exported flowers worth Sh23.6 billion at the end of the year to May, down from Sh35.1 billion. This was despite a marked increase in the quantities exported, which rose from 60,074 tonnes to 71,951 tonnes. “The figures were not so bad given the noise of the election year,” said KFC Chief Executive Jane Ngige. After a period of rapid growth between 2000 and 2010, flower exports rose from 40,000 to 120,000 tonnes, equivalent to an annualised growth of almost 12 per cent. But exports have fallen back to a growth of less than two per cent, as Ethiopian flowers benefit from massive subsidies and lower production costs. “We are partners with Ethiopia in the export business but of course they are competition. I think what is important is quality. Kenya has a secured market as well,” said Ms Ngige. Official statistics In 2016, Kenya exported flowers worth Sh71 billion by producing 133,000 tonnes while a year earlier statistics from Horticultural Crop Directorate indicated that 121,346 tonnes of flowers worth Sh62.9 billion were produced. In 2014, official statistics indicate that the flower industry earned the country Sh54.6 billion, with export volumes totalling 136,601 tonnes. Ethiopia, on the other hand, has become a major force in global floriculture in the past two decades, with its flower exports currently focused on...

In the early stages of its implementation, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) was perceived as any other grand public investment that would add to the stock of infrastructure, improve transportation and ease the cost of doing business for the private sector. The modern railway system, which has been glorified and vilified in equal measure, is entrenching itself as the nerve centre of shared industrial growth and economic prosperity. Those who see President Uhuru Kenyatta’s flagship project as a 472km railway line on which the Madaraka Express passenger trains operate between Nairobi and Mombasa, are missing the big picture. The SGR is the transport solution and experience that has been missing since the Kenya-Uganda railway over a century ago opened up East Africa by stimulating the growth of businesses and trading centres along the Northern Corridor transport system. MANUFACTURING The Kenya Railways project, which started commercial operations in May, has established backward and forward linkages with the economy. It will tug along the manufacturing sector and stimulate domestic and international trade. Manufacturing, one of the President’s ‘Big 4’ pillars of development in his second and final five-year term, will be the greatest beneficiary of the SGR. Though the sector is the engine of growth, it has suffered for decades from inefficiencies at Mombasa Port, which was until the SGR, the country’s most important infrastructure asset. Industries have protested about the losses they incur daily at the port, which is the playground of cartels and corruption that cripple the Northern Corridor. MOMBASA...

Anxiety is growing as transporters ponder the impact of changes heralded by an upgraded Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) that President Uhuru Kenyatta launched on Saturday. Mombasa county officials led by Governor Hassan Joho have raised concerns over what they see as the national government’s plot to migrate “coastal jobs” upcountry while a section of industry players in Nairobi say the ICD will compound the city’s congestion problem. But officials maintain dry ports such as the Nairobi facility is the way to go as the country looks to improve its doing-business ranking. “The ICD is just an extension of (rather than an alternative to) the Mombasa Port,” Commissioner of Customs and Border Control Julius Musyoki said. “Nothing really changes as only goods with pre-arrival clearance; those checked, analyzed and found to be clean will go to the ICD.” Under the standard gauge railway (SGR) freight plan, cargo moved by trains will be offloaded at the facility for clearance by the importers or their agents before they are evacuated by trucks to final destinations. The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) says 40 per cent of its yard containers will be allocated to the SGR. At an average throughput of one million containers, the ICD could be handling about 400,000 containers per year. The upgrade has lifted the facility’s carrying capacity to 450,000 units, up from 180,000. The government also intends to build other ICDs in Naivasha, Eldoret and Kisumu in part of the efforts to boost cargo movement. Mr Joho, whose family...

Kenya Railways has started talks with shippers and cargo owners in a spirited search for business that will meet the capacity of the upgraded Internal Container Depot (ICD) and standard gauge rail line in the heat of competition from truckers. Atanas Maina, the KR managing director, says they are selling efficiency and reliability of the SGR to win business from the roads to the rails. “We are discussing with the shippers and cargo owners to see how best we can work together to increase the volumes of cargo that is ferried through SGR,” said Mr Maina. When launching the ICD on Saturday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said they were targeting 30 to 40 per cent of the cargo that is ferried by road to move to SGR. There have been fears that the ICD terminal in Embakasi might fail to meet the required volumes of cargo because of the charges that the firm will be levying on freight. The terminal has a capacity of 450,000 containers. Road transporters have been charging an average of Sh80,000 per twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) container from the coastal city to Nairobi’s Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD), but there are others who have been charging as low as Sh60,000 for the same. KRC will charge $500 (Sh50,000) to transport the same size of container between the two cities. Truck owners, who argue that they would have preferred using SGR if the rates were favourable to them, say there is an aspect of last mile, which...

Importers will from the first quarter of next year have the option of making customs declarations themselves, saving them fees they pay to clearing agents, the Kenya Revenue Authority has said. The taxman said the ongoing rollout of Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS) will enable importers to declare contents of their cargo online on their own, a development that may open a new battlefront with the agents. The KRA is taking the new turn in an effort to tame revenue leakage tied to undervaluation of imports. Importers are, however, free to continue engaging the services of accredited agents. “The provision of an automated tariff facility effectively empowers any person to make a customs declaration. This feature means that in the not too distant future, Kenyans will be able to make customs declarations without having to depend on clearing agents,” commissioner-general John Njiraini said. The ICMS, which replaces the 12-year old Simba system, has capability to detect and block clearance for consignments whose declarations fall outside the limits of their values which are in-built. The values in the system are based on prices of various goods from various markets around the world. “This feature will substantially address the perennial problem of cargo undervaluation which is a major source of revenue leakage,” the chief taxman said. Importers will also have to confirm the values declared by the agents. “This lapse has occasioned fraud opportunities where importers are duped into paying money in excess of what KRA receives. The new feature will prevent such fraud...

Kenya is selling to Uganda the reduced cost of clearing and moving goods from the Mombasa Port to Uganda, and the standard gauge railway, to revive its bid to extend the line to its neighbour. Uncertainty hit the Kenya-Uganda SGR project after Uganda said it was considering building a railway through Tanzania. In a bilateral meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, Kenya sold the project as the answers to its neighbour’s transport needs. It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of the cargo handled at the Port of Mombasa is destined for markets like Uganda, with 11.2 million tonnes of cargo moved between the two nations annually. On Tuesday, Mr Kenyatta said that the completion of the second container terminal increased the port’s overall capacity to 1.65 million containers, with its capacity expected to hit 2.7 million containers per year once the three-stage project is complete. “The modernisation programme has resulted in reduced average time to import and export goods through the port of Mombasa — from 11 days to under 3.5 days, and work for even greater efficiency continues,” State House said in a statement on Tuesday. Source: Business Daily

US President Donald Trump’s newly-unveiled National Security Strategy has shifted America’s engagement with Africa away from human rights, good governance, trade and development to one that merely sees the continent as a market for US goods and services. Mr Trump also depicts Africa as a competitive arena in which US interests are pitted against those of China. “Africa contains many of the world’s fastest growing economies, which represent potential new markets for US goods and services,” the Trump plan states in the slightly more than one page it devotes to Africa. “The demand for quality American exports is high and will likely grow as Africa’s population and prosperity increase,” the paper adds. The Trump team’s global strategy outline, which can be viewed as a roadmap for US foreign policy in the coming years, makes only a single reference to human rights in its 55 pages. This was an exceptionally low figure compared to Barack Obama’s mention of human rights 16 times in a 29-page strategy document his administration issued in 2015. Mr Trump’s America-first approach to global trade involves an explicit determination to outpace China, which the president regards as the US’ top economic rival. This worldview comes into focus in the Africa chapter of the national security strategy, which sees China as expanding its economic and military presence in Africa, “growing from a small investor in the continent two decades ago into Africa’s largest trading partner today.” “Some Chinese practices undermine Africa’s long-term development by corrupting elites, dominating extractive...