Kenyan dairy and flower sectors report losses

The recent violence has seen about 600 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the end of 2007.

The Kenya Flower Council (KFC) has decried the loss of export opportunities in the horticulture sector with Chief Executive Jane Ngige telling KBC's Channel One in an interview that flower exporters were losing the confidence of overseas markets, especially in Europe, because of the current political stalemate in the country.

Despite the recent political turmoil that was witnessed in the country, the horticulture sector had proceeded with business as usual and it continued to register high volumes of exports.

By the end of the year, flower exports were expected to reach 60 billion shillings ($1 = about 67 shillings), surpassing the previous year's earnings of 49 billion shillings, she said.

Ngige, however, says the current political stalemate should be resolved soon because buyers were now losing confidence about supply from the market.

Recently, Kenya was able to get duty-free access to the European Union (EU) market for its flower exports for one year and Ngugi said the opportunity could now be lost if the recent threats of sanctions by the EU and United Sates (US) were to be implemented.

She appealed to political leaders to come to a compromise and save the country's economy from collapsing.

The dairy sector meanwhile reported that the country had lost production of more than 20 million litres of milk worth 200 million shillings from the recent post-poll skirmishes.

Kenya Dairy Board Managing Director Machira Gichohi said this would, however, not lead to a milk shortage in the country or retail price increase as the board had projected this year's milk production to grow by 20% to 430 million litres, up from 410 million litres last year.

However, this is now in jeopardy, according to Gichohi, who said that areas in Central, North Rift and Western regions (provinces) - regarded as the milk pot of the country - had borne the brunt of the chaos and production in affected areas suffered a 50% drop in daily production.

Gichohi believed that the sector would resume normal production once calm was restored but added that farmers might take a long time to restock their herds, which were lost during the upheaval.

He also said losses in terms of investment might take some time to recover, as the skirmishes had eroded investor confidence in the country.

These developments, he said had come at a time when the world was experiencing a milk shortage of up to 40% because of a recent drought in New Zealand and the US.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) late last year predicted that the deficit might continue up to 2014.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews