NAIROBI, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Wednesday said that it plans to borrow the Chinese concept of training packers to gain from trade in horticultural commodities at the world market.
Cornelly Serem, chairman of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), said that substandard packaging that is attributed to the lack of training of packers is to blame for Kenya's loss in securing the international market for its horticultural produce.
"We want to copy from China and set up a fully-fledged training institution for packers to help position our horticultural produce in the international market," Serem said during the award of certification to the Nairobi Horticulture Center Produce Handling Facility in Nairobi, capital of Kenya.
He said the government is considering establishing an institution to train fresh produce packers to boost the competitiveness of locally produced fruits and vegetables in the global market.
Serem noted that following the certification process, Kenya is now ready to meet the expanded demand from China that requires mangoes and bananas, besides avocado which is already being traded by the country.
He added that the certification is expected to satisfy demands by other international markets such as India that have all along wanted to import Kenya's fresh produce but were hesitant due to poor packaging, hygiene, and safety of the produce.
Zacharia Lukorito, the acting director in charge of standards development and trade at Kenya Bureau of Standards, said the certification process of the Horticultural Produce Handling Facility (Pack-House) has followed a series of audits and corrective actions.
Christine Rotich, the acting director of the Horticultural Crops Directorate, said that the certification process that started in the year 2017 is a blessing to Kenya's eight refrigerated packing houses.
Rotich noted that all personnel involved in the production process have been adequately trained to implement and follow the HACCP plan. HACCP, which stands for hazard analysis and critical control point, is a tool to assess hazards and establish control systems that focus on prevention rather than relying mainly on end-product testing.
She said the government had established effective communication regarding food safety among all parties to the production process that involved analysis, sensitization of users, and training of auditors and food safety teams.
Rotich added that the pack house facility providing packing space and cold storage serves startup and medium-scale exporters and importers of vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers.
The facility handled 1.09 million kg of fruits (avocado, mangoes, and passion fruit) and 1.23 million kg of vegetables (French beans, snow peas, sugar snaps, tomatoes, herbs, and spices) in the 2022/2023 period.
