Pakistan was Kenya’s biggest export market by value in the first three months of the year due to increased tea shipments, fresh data from state statistician shows.
Data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics from the Kenya Tea Directorate shows that the value of exports to the world’s sixth most populous country more than doubled, rising 110.81 per cent to Sh15.6 billion from Sh7.4 billion in the same period last year.
Kenya Tea Industry Performance Highlights for March 2017, published by the tea agency, show that Pakistan was the leading export destination with a volume of 11.25 million kilogrammes. That was an equivalent of 32 per cent of the total volume of tea exports.
Other key tea export destinations were Egypt ( 5.87 million kilos), the UK ( 3.17 million kilos), Sudan ( 2.47 million kilos) and United Arab Emirates ( 2.31 million kilos).
“The average auction (tea) price for the period January- March was higher at $3.01 (Sh311.69 ) per kilogramme compared to $2.50 (Sh 258.88 ) for the same period of last year,” the Tea Directorate said.
The total export volume for the January-March 2017 period was 119.72 million kilos compared to 128.32 million kilos recorded during the same period of last year, the data shows.
The total value of exports during the three months through March 31 rose by 14.70 per cent year-on-year to Sh150.85 billion from Sh131.52 billion a year ago, the KNBS data indicates.
Other leading export destinations in the January-March period were Uganda whose value was captured at Sh14.27 billion, the Netherlands (Sh11.99 billion), the US (Sh10.72 billion) and the UK (Sh9.89 billion).
“Domestic exports by Broad Economic Category indicated that food and beverages was the main export category in March 2017 accounting for 42.8 per cent of exports, while non-food industrial supplies and consumer goods not elsewhere specified accounted for 26.5 per cent and 26.8 per cent of the value of total domestic exports,” KNBS says in its Leading Economic Indicators for April.
The value of imports, on the other hand, went up by 18.85 per cent to Sh422.70 billion from Sh355.65 billion. China remained the top source of imports, with the value growing by 74.03 per cent to Sh113.61 in the review period from Sh65.28 billion the year before.
The value of imports from India –which was Kenya’s top source of imports until China landed the lucrative Standard Gauge Railway deal – decreased by 16.20 per cent to Sh47.84 billion from Sh57.09 billion in 2016.