Kenya has moved to secure its Sh102 billion horticultural export market by establishing an agency to ensure adherence to standards and quality. The Kenya Horticultural Council (KHC) will ensure all processes from cultivation to chemical application, packaging, transportation and marketing comply with the newly introduced quality standards for flowers and ornamentals (KS1758 Part 1) as well as the fruits and vegetables (KS1758 Part 2) guidelines. The Kenya Flower Council (KFC) and the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) welcomed the development saying it will boost confidence in local produce while helping improve the safety of produce. Acting KHC chairman Richard Fox said all fresh produce will be subjected to KHC scrutiny thereby curbing produce containing prohibited chemical levels. “KHC creates a single strong platform where all players will be held accountable. It will address common issues affecting the industry from numerous interceptions at the marketplace occasioned by a myriad factors...,” he said. Kenya Bureau of Standards MD Charles Ongwae said its quality management system will act as a reference point for all players thereby ensuring fresh produce sold locally and abroad is safe. Source: Business Daily

Poor marketing strategy and dilapidated access roads to major game parks remain setbacks to Uganda’s quest to improve tourist numbers. This is despite government investing in big infrastructure projects like the overhaul of the Entebbe International Airport and the Kampala-Entebbe Express Way aimed at easing travel to the capital Kampala. Another project is the Busega-Mpigi Express Way, which lies within the Northern Corridor —a regional transport route that connects Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan to Kenya’s Mombasa port, and also links tourists to Lake Mburo National Park and Mgahinga National Park, which hosts Uganda’s mountain gorillas. Industry players are now raising questions over the country’s tourism marketing strategy. “Most tourists arrivals are from Austria, Germany, the Scandinavian region, France and Belgium, with a few coming from the US and Britain. But the government’s marketing strategy remains focused on Britain and the US,” said Sam Mugenyi, the owner of Kibaale Guest Cottages in the Kibaale Forest National Park. Mr Mugenyi also called on government to review the tax levied on tourist lodges in order to cut accommodation fees. William Lalobo, managing director of Heritage Safari Lodge located in Murchison Falls National Park said access roads within the parks need to be fixed. Poaching and human wildlife conflict have also depleted the lion population. The public relations officer at Uganda Wildlife Authority Jossy Muhangi said it had stepped up policing work and game meat market intelligence gathering. “The courts have also been supportive by issuing heavy fines and sentences against wildlife offenders,”...

Following the inauguration of the Hoima-Tanga pipeline project on August 5, an umbrella body of oil and gas service providers in Tanzania is mobilising its members to take advantage of the opportunities that will come with the $3 billion project. The Association of Tanzania Oil and Gas Service providers (Atogs) has called a meeting of stakeholders on September 11 and 12 in Dar es Salaam to strategise and communicate the required standards for various services related to the projects so that Tanzanians get a fair share of the multibillion dollar deal. Atogs vice chairman Abdulsamad Abdulrahim said that under the local content provisions in the Petroleum Act 2015, Tanzanians have an advantage in acquiring local contracts subject to capacity. Atogs will provide training, links to finance and standards requirements so that they can acquire contracts in construction, engineering services, procurement of materials, logistics insurance, security services, catering an emergency services. Pipeline The 1,145 km pipeline will be built by Total at a cost of $3.5 billion. Eight per cent of it will be in Tanzania, passing through Kigoma, Geita, Shinyanga, Tabora, Singida, Dodoma, Manyara and Tanga regions. “We have communicated to Total that we have the requirements for standards, which we will communicate to our members and give them any assistance they need,” Mr Abdulrahim said. It is estimated that the project will produce about 10,000 direct employees, and about 30,000 indirect ones. Director of National Economic Empowerment Council Edwin Chrisant told reporters that the government is prepared to make sure that...

A senior US trade official on Thursday urged three East African Community countries to “revisit” their collective ban on used-clothing imports. Arguments in support of the ban put forward by Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda “are not supported by data or research,” said Ms Constance Hamilton, acting assistant US trade representative for Africa. Ms Hamilton’s comments seemed to suggest that the Trump administration is siding with a US business association that claims the three countries are in violation of eligibility criteria for the preferential trade programme known as Agoa. The African Growth and Opportunities Act stipulates that participating countries must eliminate “barriers to US trade” or be making progress in that direction. The US-based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart) says the three-year phase out of used-clothing imports, commonly known as mitumba, amounts to such a barrier. Smart petitioned US trade officials in March to exclude Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda from the Agoa provision. The three-year phase-out of mitumba jeopardises 40,000 jobs in the US recycled-clothing industry, according to Smart. Ms Hamilton cited that figure during a press teleconference on Thursday, and added that many of the threatened jobs are with small firms that have only “three or four employees.” Kenya had initially agreed to implement the EAC ban on mitumba, but rescinded the decision. Source: Daily Nation

Addis ababa – Ethiopia is looking to promote its horticulture products in China and different other markets to increase export volumes and revenue, the Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA) has said. The association said various endeavours are already going on to help achieve this goal. Tewodros Zewdie, the EHPEA executive director, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the country’s export performance of the flower sector in the last few years has shown remarkable progress, but the fruits and vegetables sector is not growing that much compared to its potential. Tewodros added that the association is working with the public and private stakeholders to address the challenges related to logistics issues, among others. “We are aggressively promoting our products in Europe, and the feedback from the buyers is quite good. Some promotion activities are also going on in China. We can also benefit from the market opportunity in the Middle East,” he said. Ethiopia earned about $300 million from export of fruits and vegetables in the last year fiscal year. Source: New Times

The life of Francine Mukareta and Vincent Bakundukize was characterised by subsistence farming 10 years ago. The couple from Huye District lived from hand to mouth with no savings or investments to their name. However, all this was to change after Mukareta mooted the idea of growing coffee on part of their land in 2006. “Though my husband was at first reluctant to replace food crops with coffee trees, he later relented and we raised Rwf45,000 to buy a small piece of land for the project,” Mukareta narrates. The couple’s neighbours were earning big from coffee farming, and Mukareta believed that if they embraced proper agronomical practices and modern farming methods, they would outdo them. Besides, her husband was earning peanuts as cook. “When I explained all this, my husband realised it was the golden idea and started searching for information and learning more about coffee growing,” says Mukareta, a resident of Cyahafi village, Mbazi sector in Huye. As they say, the rest is history as the couple is today able to cater for their six children without any challenges, thanks to coffee sales. New dawn In 2006, Mukareta planted 600 Arabica coffee trees. Four years later, she started harvesting (the crop takes four years for one to get the first harvest). The family earns over Rwf1 million every harvest. They were also able to expand the plantation after buying another piece of land and now they boast of over 1,800 coffee trees. The mother of six says last season...

The secretary general of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has recently sent a letter to the Burundian Minister of Trade and Industry stating that Burundi will not host the 20thsummit of COMESA. However, the concerned minister says the reasons provided in the letter are unfounded and adds that they are going on with preparations to host the summit. In his letter addressed to the ministry of trade and industry, written on 20 July and made public on 29 July, 2017, Sindiso Ngwenya, the secretary general of COMESA made a list of reasons why Burundi cannot host the 20th COMESA summit. The Minister of Trade and Industry says they have been preparing the summit since March in collaboration with COMESA. “COMESA secretariat has taken the first preparatory steps since March. On 2nd June 2017, the committee held a meeting to assess the venue and agreed that Burundi could host the summit. On 7th July, the secretary general himself moved from Lilongwe to Bujumbura to assess the preparations. It would be unfair to move the summit to another country with all the money we invested in its preparations.” The minister of trade and industry, Pélate Niyonkuru, says the reasons given are unfounded. “Our president did not attend the last year’s summit but sent his vice-president as his delegate. And among 19 presidents who were supposed to attend it, only two showed up. He was not the only one to be absent. And about vehicles, we have around 40 presidential...

The second edition of the annual Africa 2017, a high-level forum offering participants an unparalleled platform for promoting trade and investment within Africa, will take place on December 7-9, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the organisers announced yesterday. This year’s event will kick-off with a Young Entrepreneurs Day (YED), which will bring together emerging and established entrepreneurs, business mentors, start-up hubs, angel investors and venture capital firms to share ideas, network and help drive further the “business ideas of tomorrow”. According to the organisers, the Africa 2017 YED has partnered with top incubators, entrepreneurship programmes and venture capital firms. Organised by Egypt’s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency, the three-day conference will discuss key issues like ploicy reforms to improve business and investment climate, among others. It will attract business leaders and policy-makers from across Africa and worldwide, including Heads of State, the statement said. The forum will be held under the patronage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Dr Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, reiterated the African opportunity based on business-minded reforms taking place across the continent. “The forum seeks to stimulate investments into the continent, and especially cross-border investments. In Egypt, we have undertaken an ambitious economic reform programme, with improving the business environment and overall country competitiveness as the key ingredient,” Nasr said. This forum reinforces Egypt’s commitment to support and enhance the economic and cultural integration of Africa...

Nakuru is set to benefit from Sh1.8 billion worth of low-volume sealed roads when the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) moves to ease traffic congestion in the town. The three-year project seeks to pave 22 kilometres of roads diverting  from the major highway, a development expected to reduce the number of vehicles that pass through the town’s centre. KURA Planning and Environment General Manager Daniel Muchiri, who toured project sites on Monday, said the roads will link several residential, industrial and trading centres. “Traffic congestion in Nakuru is caused by the fact that all vehicles must access the town even though they don’t need to,” said Mr Muchiri. The roads serve Menengai and Milimani estates and seek to improve the access to Nakuru GK Prison, London estate and part of the western side of the town. They also link Industrial Area, Kaptembwa, Bondeni, Naka, Free Area and Mwariki estates of the eastern part of the town. The project being carried out by Chinese firm Weihai International Economic and Technical Cooperative is set to run for 30 months. “We have not set a specific figure on the amount to be spent on the projects in Nakuru but it will be distributed across three financial years,” he said. Mr Muchiri said that Sh181.5 million had already been paid to the contractor to start the project. “The project also entails construction of walkways, culverts, bridges and soil erosion protectors,” he said. KURA’s South Rift Regional Manager Sylvia Mwangi said the contractor was still...

Tea prices at the Mombasa auction declined for the fourth straight session to touch a three-month low in the latest sale despite fall in volumes. A market report by East African Tea Traders Association (EATTA) shows on average a kilogramme fetched Sh283 this week down from Sh292 in the previous week’s sale. The price of the commodity has been dipping since the beginning of last month. The volume of tea at the auction this week dropped to 6.6 million kilogrammes from 7.1 million the previous sale. “Out of 116,248 packages (7,530,000 kilos) available for sale, 102,903 packages (6,673,854 kilos) were sold with 11.48 per cent packages going unsold,” said the EATTA in the report. The price of the commodity had hit a high of Sh300 in June, marking the second time it crossed the mark since the beginning of the year. Tea production for 2017 is, however, still expected to drop by double digits due to the effects of drought that affected production in most growing regions. The Agriculture and Food Authority said production of green leaf will drop from 473 million kilogrammes in 2016 to about 420 million kilogrammes this year. The beverage earned Kenya $1.226 billion (Sh127.3 billion) last year, which was a drop of 1.7 per cent from the $1.247 billion (Sh129.4 billion) the commodity recorded in 2015. Kenya is the leading producer of black tea. Source: Business Daily