A strong demand for horticultural produce has driven the growth of Kenya’s export to the US in 2011, with a range of new product being allowed to enter the market.

Total exports to the US, including fruits and vegetables, totalled Sh31.6 billion ($38,026,474.13US) last year, up from Sh28.5 billion.

"The uptake of our canned fruits and vegetables...in the US has been growing and we expect even better performance when we start exporting five species of fresh vegetable that were recently cleared by authorities there," Dr Stephen Mbithi, CEO of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya said.

Kenya was recently cleared to begin exporting fresh green beans, runner beans, baby carrots, baby corn and shelled beans into the US market.

Kenya trade with America is mainly anchored on the Agoa initiative, which was mooted to supplement then existing US trade arrangements with developing nations and sought to expand duty-free benefits that were previously only available under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

Several Kenyan products, notably apparel and agricultural produce are big beneficiaries of this arrangement in which import duty is lifted on all eligible African products and preferential market access granted upon compliance with set Rules of Origin.

The Act was originally meant to expire in 2008, but received an extension from the Bush Administration and will now be operational until 2015.

Source: www.businessdailyafrica.com