Kenyan exporters of vegetables turned to India as one of the alternative markets for their produce after the European Union tightened checks on chemical residues, locking out non-compliant supplies.
Earnings from sales of fresh vegetables surged more than five times last year despite the value of total exports more than halving because of stricter checks by the 27-nation EU trading bloc.
Vegetable producers generated nearly Sh7.88 billion from exports of dried leguminous vegetables, shelled, whether or not skinned or split [beans and pigeon peas] to India last year, a 501.08 percent jump over Sh1.31 billion in 2023.
There were no recorded earnings from vegetables sold to India in 2022, according to the data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and sourced from the Kenya Revenue Authority.
This came in a year exporters of fresh vegetables suffered a 54.03 percent contraction in earnings to Sh23.4 billion compared with Sh50.9 billion the year before, attributed to a shrinking market in the EU bloc as a result of interceptions over maximum residue levels (MRLs).
“EU notifications regarding Kenyan beans and peas in pods due to concerns about pesticide residue levels exceeding MRLs resulted in lower export volumes,” KNBS analysts wrote in the 2025 Economic Survey.
The EU lowered the requirements on pesticide residues to a bare minimum, indicating that any level found on the consignment, whether high or low, is treated the same way.
An increase in the number of exports intercepted not only subjects exporters to losses but also places the country at risk of being banned from exporting produce to the EU until a corrective measure is taken.
The increased sales of orders of vegetables helped lift the total value of Kenya’s exports to a new record of Sh19.05 billion in 2024, a jump of more than three-quarters (80.85 percent) over Sh10.06 billion in the prior year.
The Indian market is among those that have in the past been listed by Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba) as difficult to penetrate.
“We realise the Indian market has risen in terms of sophistication and even the demand must correspond to the needs of the niches in the market. We are marketing key products into the market by developing a targeted IMC (Integrated marketing communications) plan,” Keproba told the Business Daily in a past emailed response.
Besides vegetables, Kenya also exports tea, legumes, tubers, coffee as well as raw hides and skin to India.
Earnings from exports of tea to India more than doubled last year, according to KNBS data, jumping 167.08 percent to Sh3.58 billion from Sh1.34 billion in 2023.
Besides strict phytosanitary and chemical level checks, exporters of horticultural produce, including vegetables, to Europe are also increasingly being forced to shift to sea transport from air to align with the growing preference for products with lower carbon emissions by consumers and retailers.
