Kenya will start exporting avocado and fish products to China under a new agreement.
In the MoU signing witnessed by Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo and her China counterpart Wang Yi, China will be opening its doors for Kenyan products under better terms.
The two governments signed six MoU's on Thursday in Mombasa during Yi's visit to the country.
Omamo said the MoU will unlock more potential to Kenyan farmers of the said products.
She said the two countries acknowledge the huge potential to increase export trade volumes and value through addressing both tariff and non-tariff barriers to sort the trade deficit in favour of China.
The CS said the two partners will establish a working group which would interrogate issues of trade barriers and fast track increase in exports from Kenya to China.
“This will accelerate corporation between these two countries in terms of trade,” Omamo said.
The new agreement is an addition to the 2019 agreement signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that allowed export of frozen avocado.
However, the agreement came with stringent measures that most of the farmers have been unable to meet.
In 2020, Kenya was only able to ship a single container of 20-foot tonnes of ripe frozen avocados against a big potential.
Some of the requirements included exporting the frozen avocados at a temperature of between -7 degrees celsius to -15 degree celsius.
Kenya is also set to benefit from 10 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government.
This is in addition to part of the one billion doses of vaccines meant for Africa which Kenya will be getting a share of.
So far, Kenya has received 200,000 doses from China.
The agreement will further oversee the provision of cold storage facilities and joint ventures in vaccine production as well as capacity building for medical personnel.
In return, Kenya is expected to open its doors for investments from China such as textiles and apparels, leather processing, footwear, furniture, oil, gas and electronics.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
