China opens doors for Kenya’s avocados, mangoes, french beans

“Openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness.” – President of China Xi Jinping

Kenyan farmers will now be able to export their agricultural products to China after they signed a formal agreement.
“After a week of delicate negotiations, formal sanitary and phytosanitary agreements have been signed between Kenya and China for Kenya‘s Agriculture produce to enter the Chinese market,” Nzioka Waita, State House Chief of Staff tweeted on Friday.
The country will now export avocados, french beans, mangoes, peanuts, and hides and skins.
Other products include legumes, vegetables and fruits, herbs, meat, bixa, macademia nuts, gum Arabica, myrrh and Asian vegetables like chilli and karela.

Waita said the two countries have formally launched their technical working group to commence negotiations on the expansion of trade opportunities and review of tariff and non-tariff barriers.
“As part of the recently signed sanitary and phytosanitary standards with China, technical teams from the two countries will start the process of setting inspection criteria for each product category,” he added. “The Kenya side will be led by KEPHIS. Every effort will be made to fast-track the process.”
On Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta asked China to give preferential treatment to goods from Africa as it continues opening up its vast market to the rest of the world.
He made the call when he delivered a keynote address at the inaugural China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Uhuru said China can start by reducing tariffs on specific goods so that more traders from countries including Kenya can access the vast Chinese market of 1.4 billion people.
“China now ranks as the number one trading partner with Kenya accounting for 17.2% of Kenya’s total trade with the World,” he said.
“Kenya is open and safe for business. Kenya has one of the most conducive business environments in Africa,” the President added.
China is currently Kenya’s largest trading partner with the volume of trade surpassing the 4 billion dollar mark in 2017.
On the other hand,  President of China Xi Jinping said, “Openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness. Global trade and investment are driven by the need of countries for mutual exchange and complementarity.” “Efforts to reduce tariff barriers and open wider will lead to inter-connectivity in economic cooperation and global trade, while the practices of beggaring thy neighbor, isolation and seclusion will only result in trade stagnation and an unhealthy world economy.”