Kenya Exports

“Administrative costs related to exports are often not obvious costs, but they hinder businesses. For me, it was exciting in this workshop to unpack the costs of doing business for the exporters and discuss with the governmental agencies ways to reduce these burdens, these costs for the exporters,” says Sarah Nyagah, General Secretary, Kenya Coffee Producers Association.

She attended the workshop organized by the European Union- East African Community MARKUP II programmme to examine new proposals to simplify coffee and tea export procedures in Kenya was held in Naivasha along with other partcipants including Josiah Syanda, Deputy Director Phytosanitary, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service.

“During this workshop, the necessity of all agencies to be involved in simplifying value chains emerged, and we were able to critically interrogate most of the critical aspects that are required: knowledge transfer and awareness on simplification processes, so that the traders can know and participate in the advocacy for these changes that are necessary to make business easier,” Joshua said.

Held in March, the workshop reviewed the current coffee and tea procedures, as mapped on the InfoTradeKenya Portal and identified new areas for simplification to reduce duplications and complexities of export processes.

Building upon the achievements of the on-going work led by KenTrade and Kenya National Trade Facilitation Committee and the latest sectoral reforms, participants also discussed strategic steps for trade facilitation and advocacy in the sectors.