Fresh produce exporters will get government support to access and retain their share of the heavily regulated European Union (EU) markets, Kenyan agriculture minister Kipruto Kirwa said in Nairobi last week.
He said accessing the EU's horticulture market had become more difficult following the enactment of stringent, statutory and commercial laws.
Kirwa said the ministry had launched a training programme for internal auditors on the ever-changing EU legislation and regulations.
The 40 auditors are expected to train staff, farmers and growers on EU's regulations and to strengthen their internal auditing structures.
"Our largest market to date is the European Union, which is also the top supplier of our horticultural inputs and equipment. It is our intention to continue with this trend and do even better," Kirwa said in a speech read for him by agriculture permanent secretary Joseph Kinyua at the opening of this year's Horticulture and Floriculture exhibition, Hortec.
The international trade fair took place at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Nairobi and is one of the most important events in the calendar of the east African horticultural industry, bringing together producers, breeders, buyers and other service providers from Africa and other continents.
Kirwa said the horticulture sub-sector is one of the fastest growing in the Kenyan economy, second only to tea in foreign exchange earnings.
Kenya's floriculture exports have been growing at an average rate of 35 per cent a year for the last 15 years. Kirwa said Kenya was committed to social and environmental accountability and ethical trading practices, and has accordingly ratified the various international conventions and bilateral agreements.
The conventions include the World Trade Organisation sanitary and phytosanitary agreement and Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
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