Business

Pandemic cuts Kenya’s import volume by 8.8pc

Friday, April 16th, 2021 00:00 | By

Kenya’s imports dipped to Sh1.65 trillion last year against Sh1.81 trillion in 2019, a decrease of 8.8 per cent as coronavirus disrupted international trade, Kenya Export Promotion and Brand Agency (Keproba) data shows.

Imports were subdued as firms faced difficulties acquiring some inputs amid sustained disruption to international trade and global supply chains.

However, exported goods in 2020 topped Sh642 billion compared to Sh595 billion recorded in 2019.

“Thus, the balance of trade deficit for merchandised trade improved by Sh203 billion (16.8 per cent) to record Sh1 trillion in 2020 from Sh1.2 trillion in 2019,” said Keprabo in its report for March this year.

The agency said exports consisted mainly of tea, horticulture, coffee, articles of apparel, and iron and steel products, while main imports comprised high value capital goods and goods for industrial use, including petroleum oil products, industrial machinery, crude vegetable oil, raw iron or steel, and plastics.

Uganda, Pakistan and the UK were the three leading destination markets for Kenya’s products with a combined total value of Sh176 billion, accounting for 11.3 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 7.7 per cent of the total exports share.

Exports to Uganda

Consequently, Kenya’s exports to Uganda increased to Sh72 billion in 2020 from Sh63 billion, that of Pakistan went up to Sh54.6 billion from Sh45.2 billion, while the UK imported products worth Sh49.9 billion, up from Sh40 billion.

Among the export products whose exports grew in 2020 by more than Sh2 billion include tea, horticulture, vegetable oils, cereal and products, tobacco products, edible preparations as well as vegetable and fruit preparations, while those whose exports decreased were textile and apparels, petroleum oils, beverages and spirits; and iron and steel products.

Tea took the largest share of exports at 20.3 per cent, recording Sh130 billion, from Sh113.5 billion recorded in 2019, followed by horticulture at Sh122 billion from Sh109 billion in 2019.

“However, Kenyan exports decreased, by more than Sh1 billion, into UAE, Mozambique, Qatar, US, Tanzania, Canada, Afghanistan, Singapore, Burundi, and Saudi Arabia,” said Keprabo.

Kenya has hard frosty trading relations with Tanzania, which in 2017 culminated with Tanzanian authorities burning 6,400 chicks worth Sh12.5 million imported by a Tanzanian businesswoman.

In the period under review, Tanzania imported products worth Sh31.3 billion from the Sh33.6 billion achieved in 2019, and was Kenya’s seventh most important trading partner in the world.

Speaking to Xinhua early this year, Car Importers Association of Kenya (CIAK)chair Peter Otieno said Kenya’s car imports declined by an estimated 50 per cent to 65,000 in 2020 compared to 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic disruption.

Scarcity of ships

He said Kenya imported approximately 130,000 vehicles in 2019.“Between March and November 2020 there was a scarcity of ships to ferry vehicles into Kenya and this led to a drastic reduction of car imports last year,” Otieno said.

He revealed that an economic downturn in Kenya also affected the demand for vehicles in the country.

According to the trade association, imports account for over 80 per cent of the cars on Kenyan roads.

Otieno added that about 90 per cent of imports are used cars with Japan, Britain, Singapore and South Korea as the major source for passenger cars and Thailand as a key source for pickups.

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