Market Country Information Focus helps feed neighboring countries. Kenya is Africa ' s leading tea producer, and was fourth in the world in 1999, behind India, China, and Sri Lanka. B l a c k t e a i s Ke n y a ' s l e a d i n g agricultural foreign exchange earner. Production in 1999 reached 220,000 tons. Tea exports were valued at $ 404.1 million in 2001, or nearly 18 % of total exports. The tea industry is divided between small farms and large estates. The small-scale sector, with more than 260, 000 farmers, is controlled by the parastatal Kenya Tea Development Authority. The estates, c o n s i s t i n g o f 6 0 – 7 5 p r i v a t e companies, operate on their own.
Agriculture in Kenya
Coffee is Kenya ' s third leading foreign exchange earner, after tourism and tea. In 2001, coffee earnings totaled $ 91.8 million. Production in 2001 / 02 amounted to 52,140 tons. Similar to the tea sector, coffee is produced on many small farms and a few large estates. All coffee is marketed through the parastatal Coffee Board of Kenya. The suspension of the e c o n o m i c p r o v i s i o n s o f t h e International Coffee Agreement in J u l y 1 9 8 9 d i s r u p t e d m a r k e t s temporarily, driving coffee prices to historical lows. Kenyan horticulture has become prominent in recent years, and is now the third leading agricultural export, following tea and coffee. Fresh produce a c c o u n t e d f o r a b o u t 3 0 % o f horticutural exports, and included green beans, onions, cabbages, snow peas, avocados, mangoes, and passion fruit. Flowers exported include roses, carnations, statice, astromeria, and lilies. Kenya is the world ' s largest producer and exporter of pyrethrum, a flower that contains a substance used in pesticides. The pyrethrum extract, known as pyrethrin, is derived from the flower ' s petals. A drop in production during the mid-1990s was due to increasing production costs, disease damage, and slow payment by the parastatal Pyrethrum Board of Kenya. The growing demand for " organic " and " natural " pesticides has increased international demand for pyrethrin, despite the existence of synthetic chemical substitutes. Kenya also produces sisal, tobacco, and bixa annatto( a natural food coloring agent) for export. Other important crops in 1999 were sugarcane, 5,200,000 tons; corn, 2,110,000 tons; wheat, 135,000 tons; rice, 40,000 tons; and cotton, 5,000 tons. Smallholders grow most of the corn and also produce significant quantities of potatoes, beans, peas, sorghum, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, and oilseeds.
www. farmersreviewafrica. com July- August 2016
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