George Mawadri, British Airways’ commercial manager in Kenya told the Business Daily that “There are great opportunities in Africa and we are eyeing the region keenly.” Likewise, Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, had said in April, “Although Africa was the hardest hit by the crisis, its recovery has been so remarkable that we could be at the beginning of what history will describe as Africa’s decade.”

Major carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, British Airways, Brussels, Lufthansa, Turkish Airline, Swiss International, and Delta have been introducing new African routes on their networks and increasing frequency to tap into the raising economic profile of Africa. In addition to the oversees airlines, domestic airlines like Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Egypt Air and the Royal Air Morocco have been increasing their presence in the region and connecting their hubs to other international routes.

This July Belgian airline, Brussels, launched four new African destinations to its network — Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo — and increased frequency to Ivory Coast. Emirates with 19 cities in its network and Qatar Airways with similar strong presence in the continent clearly indicate the Middle Eastern airlines will make at least many African cities as a stopover location to extend their airprint to other far-off international destinations.

Africa overcame the meltdown contrary to many forecasts including that of the World Bank, and it is estimated, at this pace of recovery, an economic growth of about 5 percent by the end of this year. Furthermore, in 2011, half of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies are expected to be in Africa.

Toboc Trade News

On the day one of a Kefri training session the farmers were greeted with the message – “Are you going hungry? Well, you need not suffer from hunger pangs any more if you have bamboo growing on your farm or in a nearby forest.” It is estimated that more than 10mn Kenyans either go hungry or survive on a single meal a day; scientists believe bamboo shoots would be able to assuage the situation as it is found to be a cheap fibre-rich food substitute.

The scientists who trained the farmers treated them with bamboo shoot cuisine and taught how to prepare them. Nevertheless, Peter Kungu, a technologist, cautioned the attentive farmers that not all types of bamboo shoots were edible as some contained cyanide, a highly toxic chemical that could kill humans within hours.

Bamboo is the world’s fastest-growing plant and has been known to surge skyward as much as 121 cm in 24 hours. Bamboo is a regular dish among Asian countries particularly in Japan and Far East countries but relatively a new food concept in Kenya.

Besides including bamboo as a food supplement in daily diet, Kenya will attempt to extend its usage into handicraft and furniture products. Currently bamboo is widely used in the flower industry for support purposes, and pea farmers use them to support plants.

The Kenyan government imposed the decree following a finding that eucalyptus trees are chief water-depleting agent in the river basin. Kangema environment officer Isaiah Gichuru informed the removal of eucalyptus was bearing fruit as water levels in rivers and springs in the region have risen. However, farmers still have the option of growing the fast-maturing eucalyptus trees away from river banks.

The Tree Biotechnology Trust, a semi–government agency, has received $3.65mn from former UK minister for Science and Technology, Lord David Sainsbury to further bamboo project across Kenya. Sainsbury suggested the project would contribute significantly both to the economy as well as the environment. He also said that he is engaged in similar programmes in Tanzania and Uganda.

Toboc Trade News

A government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the Associated Press (AP) that there was suspicion that a portion of the ransom monies has been used in the purchase of property in several countries including Kenya. He added Kenya might be the most attractive spot for pirates to launder their money because it shared roughly 500-mile (800km) border with Somalia, and had investment opportunities with a large Somali community of up to 200,000 people.

It has been observed that the neighborhood town of Nairobi which now called as “Little Mogadishu” because of its Somali community had witnessed sudden rise of large business and apartment buildings in a short span of time. Even suburbs of Nairobi has seen explosive growth in property prices, for instance, homes in Karen which were sold for $200,000 five years ago sells for $500,000 today.

Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House said Somali pirates had been paid more than $100mn in ransoms the last two years. The average ransom is also up, from $1mn per vessel a year ago to about $2mn today. The latest reports of the hijack of four vessels this week alone and rise in ransom money are only expected to worsen the situation if Kenyan government does not take stringent measures to counter the alleged ransom money in property transactions.

According to AP, one pirate by name Osman Afrah said he bought three trucks that transport goods across East Africa. Likewise, another by name Abdulle admitted that through his brother in Nairobi he had made investments there, and owned a huge shop that sold clothes and general merchandise in a bid to quit piracy. He also said Pirates had stashed money not only in Nairobi but also other places like Dubai, Djibouti and others.

On the contrary, the Somali community had rejected the allegation, and said that they would take legal option to stop any investigation into piracy ransom circulation. Hassan Guled, the chairman of the Somali business community claimed they had acquired property largely through banks and remittances from a large Somali diaspora in Europe and America who could not invest in those economies because of religious beliefs.

However, Pius Khaoya, a real estate agent said factors outside the economy were influencing property prices, and it did not tally with the performance of the country’s economy. He further added under normal circumstances in Kenya, it would take a decade for property values to double, but that real estate prices had tripled in the last five years.

Toboc Trade News

According to the statement, some of the key export products particularly from Kenya would attract re-introduction or increase in tariffs. The EPA was supposed to be concluded by July 31, 2009 – but missed the deadline due to lack of consensus on rules of origin – most favoured a clause on agriculture, trade in services and sustainable development.

The head of the union’s delegation to Nairobi Eric van der Linden said that he was looking forward to the success of the EPA soon. Likewise, the head of EPA unit at the trade directorate-general of the European Commission Jacques Wunenburger said that talk should now move from the “cost of EPA” to talk about the “cost of non-EPA.”

The Daily Nation reported that the Kenyan horticulture and floriculture exports currently enjoy no taxes to enter the EU markets. The Kenyan exports of fruits and vegetables to the European bloc are pegged at around 450,000 tonnes per annum.

A decision to tax EAC exports by the EU would be death knell to the future of cut flowers from Kenya as it is the largest exporter to the bloc. Besides, the country’s floriculture industry has been spending a lot of money to modernize its facilities for the past decade.

As on December 31, 2008, Horticulture remained Kenya’s leading foreign exchange earner, by recording an impressive performance of close to $1bn of the overall exports. Nonetheless, a report by the EU-ACP Impact Assessment on EPAs stated the absence of the duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market, the sector would collapse.

The EU has been negotiating an EPA with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries since September 2002 with the aim of replacing non-reciprocal trade preferences granted under the Cotonou Agreement. However, the EAC, which comprises Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda has been negotiating since then as a separate entity, and went on to sign an interim framework on the EPA with the EU in November 2007.

Toboc Trade News

The ITC found children or siblings of the people involved in the organic farming activities were better fed, better clothed and performed better at school than others. The workers of this sector were better informed about the ill-effects of dangerous diseases such as, HIV/AIDS. They also enjoyed better human resources development practices including employee safety, free transport and so on.

Lately, the growing concern over climate change has tagged ‘Food miles’ to airfreighted products threatening livelihoods of many people in Kenya and other African countries involved in this trade. Various organic certifiers from Europe have even withdrawn organic certification to airfreighted products by branding them as products of high carbon footprint.

However, due to the concerted effort by the ITC and the DFID, the UK government department which works for human development and poverty alleviation, the Soil Association certifier has assured that they would continue to certify airfreighted organic products from Africa. ITC strongly argued that despite the UK beef production generated many times more greenhouse gases than other forms of animal protein production it passed similar certification test. Interestingly findings of a research showed a 10km car trip to a supermarket generated more carbon emissions than airfreighting a kilogram of beans from Kenya.

The leading airfreight export countries are Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Zambia and the US. There are also other African nations involved in this trade including South Africa, Cameroon, Gambia and Ghana. ITC feels a sustained growth in the organic market without any hiccups like that of the certification issue could help many farmers and workers in Africa to lead a quality life.

Toboc Trade News