Kenya airlifted 300 tonnes of fruit and vegetables in three flights to the south of Spain last night.
The flights are the first carrying horticultural goods since 15 April, when ash from an exploding volcano in Iceland forced the closure of airspace across Europe.
The fresh produce that has built up in the last week could be sent to Europe by 24 April, reports Businessweek.com
Stephen Mbithi, chief executive officer of the Fresh Produce Exporters' Association of Kenya, said businesses in the country were attempting to get more flights in the air today.
Kenya is still holding fresh produce worth $12 million (£7.8m) due to the closure of European airspace, which has led to the cancellation of 81,000 flights.
Mbithi said in the best-case scenario that all scheduled flights take off today, farmers would lose about $6m.
From Spain, the produce carried on yesterday’s flights will be transported by road to the UK. Tesco landed a Boeing 747 from East Africa “quite recently” in Spain and goods were being trucked overland to the UK, according to a spokesperson.
Mbithi said not all the produce would be lost as they have a shelf life of seven to eight days, but fears are that currently vegetables left unharvested due to uncertainty will now be too hard to sell.
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