Trade CS Peter Munya with Chinese government officials while signing the formal Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreements./ COURTESY: STAR

Hass avocado is one of the biggest fruit in the market and soon or later it will be the biggest. Its demand is growing tremendously.

In the new developments experienced in the month of November 2018, Kenya will now export hass avocado, French beans, mangoes, peanuts, and hides and skins to China.

This happened after a week of delicate negotiations of formal sanitary and phytosanitary between Kenya and China that saw the agreements being signed between Kenya and China for Kenya‘s Agriculture produce to enter the Chinese market.

Apart from hass avocados, other products that were approved are legumes, vegetables and fruits, herbs, meat, bixa, macademia nuts, gum Arabica, myrrh and Asian vegetables like chilli and karela.

The government through state house chief of staff said Kenya and China have also formally launched their technical working group to commence negotiations on the expansion of trade opportunities and review of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Earlier when President Uhuru Kenyatta had expressed concern about the trade imbalance when he visited China for bilateral talks in early November 2018.

President Uhuru Kenyatta asked China to give preferential treatment to goods from Africa as it continues opening up its vast market to the rest of the world.

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He made the call when he delivered a keynote address at the inaugural China International Import Expo held in Shanghai. Uhuru called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to enact measures to proactively raise the volume of goods coming from the African continent to China. On another meeting before, Kenyatta said China can start by reducing tariffs on specific goods so that more traders from countries including Kenya can access the vast Chinese market of 1.4 billion people.

While acknowledging China's leading role in the Kenyan economy as a trading partner, the President called for increased Chinese investments in the country.

He noted that China now ranks as the number one trading partner with Kenya accounting for 17.2% of Kenya’s total trade with the World.

Now, if you are a farmer in Kenya willing to grow hass avocado and you are worried there might be no enough market, well stop worrying as the government and major stakeholders are doing all they can to ensure your product gets to the market and fetches the best prices. The ball is in your hand, as a farmer, however, we are here for you!