NAIROBI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's horticultural exports are projected to increase about 10 percent to 166.76 billion shillings (about 1.23 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, compared to 1.1 billion dollars in 2022, an industry umbrella body said Wednesday.
"Given the current good rains being experienced in most parts of the country and the increase in demand from the overseas market, we expect to grow the 2023 exports," Okisegere Ojepat, chief executive officer of Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya, a trade association committed to driving the growth of fresh produce companies in Kenya, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, during a horticulture workshop.
The bulk of the exports is transported via air freight with the rest using road and rail transport to the Port of Mombasa before being loaded to shipping vessels en route to their various destinations, said Ojepat, citing the European Union, Britain, Japan, China, and the Middle East as some of the main export destinations.
The East African nation's major horticultural crops include flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Horticulture exports are the leading source of foreign exchange for the country alongside tea, tourism, diaspora remittances, and coffee, according to government statistics.
