Source: Business Daily Africa
By GEORGE OMONDI
Kenya’s bid for a larger share of the southern Africa fresh produce market took a fresh blow after the Angolan government banned banana imports from Kenya in a move aimed at curbing the spread of banana wilt disease in the region.
Banana wilt— a bacterial disease which first got its way into the region through Uganda in 2001— has since spread to nations in central and eastern Africa which produce and consume bananas in large quantities due to lack of a combined regional effort to control it.
The disease causes the fruit to ripen prematurely, forces leaves to wilt and the affected plants usually die leading to significant yield loss to farmers
The move comes barely months after South African banned Kenya’s avocado and mango exports over concerns of fruit flies infestation in the region, in a move that has put a damper on the country’s target of emerging as the biggest exporter of fresh produce to the Southern Africa market.
The order issued by Angola’s agriculture ministry last week also affects imports from DRC Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda.
The affected countries constitute the largest banana-producing and consuming states in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Kenya banana exports account for a small fraction of its fresh produce exports, but the government has been working on plans to boost exports, with the South African market as its target.
“While banana exports from the country is negligible, the prevalence of the wilt in the region not only puts domestic consumers at risk but will also interfere with campaigns to promote its production as an export produce,” said Dr Stephen Mbithi, the Fresh Produce Exporters of Kenya’s (FPEAK) chief Executive Officer.
He said Kari had concluded many researches that could eradicate the disease in the region soon.
Last year, the institute recommended that all the affected varieties of banana be uprooted from farms to curb the spread of disease.
To the Kenyan government, the Angolan ban comes barely one year after the state-owned Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) raised the red flag over the outbreak of the disease in the country.
Experts say the disease can easily be contained through improved agricultural practices such as planting clean materials, disinfecting farm tools and early removal of male flowers.
However, once a field is infected, all banana plants must be uprooted, buried and the land left fallow or put under different crops for at least six months if it is to be completely eradicated The Angolan government has been struggling to revive its once-prosperous banana industry that started declining following a 1975-2002 civil war that devastated the southern African nation’s farming sector.
Its ban on Kenyan bananas comes as another serious blow to the local fresh producers who are still smarting from the ban slapped by South African government on the country’s avocado and mango exports over concerns of fruit flies infestation in the region.
The Kenyan exporters have rejected the South African charge as a flimsy excuse being used to mount a protectionist measures against local fresh produce.
Both South Africa and Angola are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the largest economic bloc in the continent that Kenya hopes to trade with freely once a free trade area being negotiated on tripartite basis between EAC, COMESA and SADC is concluded.
Available statistics (2007) indicate that Kenya exported goods worth Sh2.35 billion to South Africa against Sh35.36 billion imports from South Africa.
Kenya imports from South Africa an array of fruits that include apples, mangoes, oranges and pears that are common in the local retail outlets.
Trade ministry officials told the Business Daily that it is only a matter of time before the row with South Africa is concluded amicably.
Kari, Kephis and ICIPE have given the local avocadoes a clean bill of health.
Fruit flies
“We are just preparing to hold the last consultative meeting on tests to prove that our fruits have not been affected by fruit flies before South Africa lifts the ban by the end of this year,” said a source involved in the negotiations who cannot be quoted because he is not the ministry’s official spokesperson on trade negotiations.
Avocado is one of the emerging horticultural crops that fetches Kenya up to Sh2.2 billion annually from exports mainly destined for the European Union.
On an industrial scale, the crop is an important revenue earner for listed agricultural firm, Kakuzi Limited whose exports of Hass avocado variety accounts for an estimated 75 per cent of Kenya’s total avocado exports to Europe.
Banana wilt— a bacterial disease which first got its way into the region through Uganda in 2001— has since spread to nations in central and eastern Africa which produce and consume bananas in large quantities due to lack of a combined regional effort to control it.
The disease causes the fruit to ripen prematurely, forces leaves to wilt and the affected plants usually die leading to significant yield loss to farmers
The move comes barely months after South African banned Kenya’s avocado and mango exports over concerns of fruit flies infestation in the region, in a move that has put a damper on the country’s target of emerging as the biggest exporter of fresh produce to the Southern Africa market.
The order issued by Angola’s agriculture ministry last week also affects imports from DRC Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda.
The affected countries constitute the largest banana-producing and consuming states in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Kenya banana exports account for a small fraction of its fresh produce exports, but the government has been working on plans to boost exports, with the South African market as its target.
“While banana exports from the country is negligible, the prevalence of the wilt in the region not only puts domestic consumers at risk but will also interfere with campaigns to promote its production as an export produce,” said Dr Stephen Mbithi, the Fresh Produce Exporters of Kenya’s (FPEAK) chief Executive Officer.
He said Kari had concluded many researches that could eradicate the disease in the region soon.
Last year, the institute recommended that all the affected varieties of banana be uprooted from farms to curb the spread of disease.
To the Kenyan government, the Angolan ban comes barely one year after the state-owned Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) raised the red flag over the outbreak of the disease in the country.
Experts say the disease can easily be contained through improved agricultural practices such as planting clean materials, disinfecting farm tools and early removal of male flowers.
However, once a field is infected, all banana plants must be uprooted, buried and the land left fallow or put under different crops for at least six months if it is to be completely eradicated The Angolan government has been struggling to revive its once-prosperous banana industry that started declining following a 1975-2002 civil war that devastated the southern African nation’s farming sector.
Its ban on Kenyan bananas comes as another serious blow to the local fresh producers who are still smarting from the ban slapped by South African government on the country’s avocado and mango exports over concerns of fruit flies infestation in the region.
The Kenyan exporters have rejected the South African charge as a flimsy excuse being used to mount a protectionist measures against local fresh produce.
Both South Africa and Angola are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the largest economic bloc in the continent that Kenya hopes to trade with freely once a free trade area being negotiated on tripartite basis between EAC, COMESA and SADC is concluded.
Available statistics (2007) indicate that Kenya exported goods worth Sh2.35 billion to South Africa against Sh35.36 billion imports from South Africa.
Kenya imports from South Africa an array of fruits that include apples, mangoes, oranges and pears that are common in the local retail outlets.
Trade ministry officials told the Business Daily that it is only a matter of time before the row with South Africa is concluded amicably.
Kari, Kephis and ICIPE have given the local avocadoes a clean bill of health.
Fruit flies
“We are just preparing to hold the last consultative meeting on tests to prove that our fruits have not been affected by fruit flies before South Africa lifts the ban by the end of this year,” said a source involved in the negotiations who cannot be quoted because he is not the ministry’s official spokesperson on trade negotiations.
Avocado is one of the emerging horticultural crops that fetches Kenya up to Sh2.2 billion annually from exports mainly destined for the European Union.
On an industrial scale, the crop is an important revenue earner for listed agricultural firm, Kakuzi Limited whose exports of Hass avocado variety accounts for an estimated 75 per cent of Kenya’s total avocado exports to Europe.
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