Kenya is one step closer to winning the battle to protect its huge European market, in the face of a campaign mounted by UK supermarkets to ban product over food mile concerns.
Speaking at the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) headquarters, where Kenyan agriculture minister Kipruto Kirwa was meeting chief executives of companies part-owned by the government, former British MP Tony Colman said that strong lobbying in Britain had won over the support of the media and supermarket owners. Colman, who is also executive director of African Practice, a private consultancy firm that lobbies for African states on trade issues in Europe, said the issue of carbon emissions for produce from Africa had been exaggerated.
Some UK supermarkets have recently started labelling labelling horticultural products from Kenya as “airfreighted”, in an attempt to warn customers of their environmental impact, but Colman reported that sales of vegetables and flowers from the country had actually increased recently.
Combined lobbying by activists in Kenya and Europe has changed the perception created that airfreighted horticultural products produced more carbon emissions than those grown in Europe, Colman explained.
Production in Kenya should be increased to double employment opportunities, he noted: “The sector employs two million people, which should be expanded up to four million.”
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