Revenue from Kenya’s export market grew at a much faster pace between January-August, data by the Central Bank shows.
Value of exports grew by 7.43 per cent to Sh423.8 billion compared to Sh394.48 billion the same period last year. The growth is significantly larger than growth reported over the same period last year at 0.3 percentage points when compared to Sh393.29 billion collected from exports.
Key export markets were Pakistan at Sh41.55 billion, followed by Uganda at Sh33.69 billion and Netherlands at Sh31.69 billion. This is an
year after government launched the National Development and Promotion Strategy, which is aimed at growing exports contribution to GDP to 25 per cent by 2022.
The plan targeting six items for accelerated development through a public-private working group was unveiled in November last year to open up new markets for the country’s processed products.
Under the export promotion strategy, the government priritised six sectors — livestock and livestock products, agriculture, fisheries, manufactured products and handicrafts .
Countries identified as key markets in the new push include the US, the UK, Germany, Uganda, Egypt, the DRC, Rwanda, Pakistan, South Sudan, Belgium and The Netherlands.
“Export promotion strategies involve policy measures that include export subsidies, tax concessions targeted at incentivising exports, and quality control,” DB Capital Limited MD Karen Kandie said.
“On this front, marketing plays a key role, through which Kenya can position herself as a source of high quality and authentic products.”
The data shows despite growing by four per cent to Sh1.2 trillion, the value of imports increased at a much slower rate compared to a 22.89 per cent growth recorded over the same period last year to Sh1.16 trillion compared to Sh940.17 billion in 2016.
China remains Kenya’s leading import market with goods valued at Sh267.09 billion. This was a slight drop compared to imports valued at Sh267.09 billion the same period last year.
The value of goods from Saudi Arabia more than doubled to Sh121.07, registering the fastest growth, while imports from India were valued at Sh121.22 billion
In turn, the country’s trade deficit which had jumped 39.14 per cent to Sh760.93 billion during the January-August period in 2017, eased this year growing 2.25 per cent to Sh777.87 billion.
“Bridging the trade deficit requires focus on our imports as well as our exports. This refers to implementing import substitution development strategies and export promotion strategies,” Kandie said.